''Leitneria floridana'' (corkwood), the sole species in the genus ''Leitneria'', is a deciduous

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

or small tree, found only in the southern United States states of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas. It grows at damp

habitats In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, mostly in coastal areas and has extremely light wood with a density less than that of cork. It typically reaches 2–4 m tall, occasionally up to 8 m. The trunk can reach 10 cm in diameter. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are alternate, simple lanceolate, 5–20 cm long and 3–6 cm broad. In the past, it was treated as the only species in the family Leitneriaceae of the order Leitneriales, but genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has recently resulted in its being transferred to the family Simaroubaceae in the Sapindales. It is named after the German natural scientist E. F. Leitner.

Fossil record

A single, strongly compressed endocarp has been collected from the sediments of the

Villa San Faustino A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became sm ...

site in Italy. This isolated specimen demonstrates that †''Leitneria venosa'' persisted in Italy until the Early Pleistocene. ''Leitneria'' sp. is also among the species listed in the Early Pliocene San Gimigniano flora. In northern Italy several endocarps of ''L. venosa'' have been found at the top of the Cervo River of Late Pliocene age. ''Leitneria'' was a rare element in the late

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

floras of Italy

References

External links

Interactive Distribution Map of ''Leitneria floridana''
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q13070310, from2=Q1330656 Simaroubaceae Trees of the Southeastern United States Trees of the North-Central United States Trees of the South-Central United States Near threatened plants Monotypic Sapindales genera Taxa named by Alvan Wentworth Chapman Dioecious plants