''Ocotea'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s belonging to the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

. Many are evergreen trees with

lauroid This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary ...

leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas (around 300 species) including the Caribbean and West Indies, but also with some species in Africa,

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and the

Mascarene Islands The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their na ...

. One species (''O. foetens'') is native to the

Macaronesia Macaronesia (; ) is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlantic, North Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of North Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of list of islands in the Atlantic Oc ...

(in

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

and

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

). The genus is suspected to be

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

Description

They are trees or shrubs, occasionally with

adventitious root Important structures in plant development are buds, Shoot (botany), shoots, roots, leaf, leaves, and flowers; plants produce these tissues and structures throughout their life from meristems located at the tips of organs, or between mature tissues. ...

s (''O. hartshorniana'', ''O. insularis''). Leaves simple, alternate, rarely opposite or whorled. The leaves are

, they are commonly dark green glossy with sometimes brown on the underside and fragrant oil cells. The African and Madagascan species all have bisexual flowers (possessing both male and female parts), whereas many of the American species have flowers that are

unisexual Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

(either male or female). The apetalous flowers are in small panicles. The fruits are globose or oblong berries, 3–5 cm in length, hard and fleshy and at the junction of the peduncle part with the fruit covered by a cup-shaped, occasionally flat, cupule, giving them an appearance similar to an

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

. The fruit is dark green, gradually darkening with maturity. The cupule at the base of the berry, can be more brightly colored. The fruit has a single seed wrapped in a hard coat and can be slightly lignified.

Names

The genus has no standard common name. Names often refer to the aroma of the wood, which can be strong and not always pleasant.

Sweetwood Sweetwood is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Laurus nobilis'', native to the Mediterranean region *'' Myrospermum susanum'' *'' Nectandra'' *''Ocotea ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Laurac ...

is usually applied only to this genus, although many names are also applied to this genus and other genera: *

Stinkwood Stinkwood, German ''Stinkholz'', French ''Bois Puant'', is the common name for a number of trees or shrubs which have wood or plant parts with an unpleasant odour, including: *'' Anagyris foetida''; Southern Europe *'' Bignonia callistegioides'' (c ...

can refer to several unrelated trees that have bad-smelling wood. ''Ocotea bullata'' is called black stinkwood or true stinkwood, and ''Ocotea foetens'' is also called stinkwood. *

Camphorwood ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camph ...

is usually ''

Cinnamomum camphora ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camph ...

'' a close relative of ''Ocotea'' species. *

Rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

(Peruvian rosewood, '' O. cernua'') is normally ''

Dalbergia ''Dalbergia'' is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Dalbergia'' clade (or tribe): the Dalbergieae. The ...

'' or related members of the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. The common names of some species refer to their similarity to other

such as ''

Sassafras ''Sassafras'' is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eo ...

'' (Brazilian sassafras: '' O. odorifera'') or ''

Laurus ''Laurus'' () is a genus of evergreen trees or shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus contains three or more species, including the bay laurel or sweet bay, ''L. nobilis'', widely cultivated as an ornamental plant and a cul ...

'' (Cape laurel: '' O. bullata'', Sword laurel: ''O. floribunda'', Guaika laurel: '' O. puberula'', etc.).

Distribution and habitat

Afromontane forest canopy - giant Black Stinkwood tree - SA

Most species of ''Ocotea'' are distributed across the tropical

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, from Mexico to Northern Argentina including the West Indies. Species are also found in eastern Africa from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, in

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

and

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

in Central Africa, and on

and the

. One species, ''

Ocotea foetens ''Ocotea foetens'', commonly called til or stinkwood is a species of tree in the family Lauraceae. It is evergreen and grows up to 40 m tall. It is a common constituent of the laurisilva forests of Madeira and the Canary Islands. Leaf fossils of ...

'', is native to the

and

in the North Atlantic. ''Ocotea'' species are distributed in subtropical and tropical regions, often at higher elevations. They are characteristic plants of many tropical and subtropical montane forests such as the

Araucaria moist forest The Araucaria moist forests, officially classified as mixed ombrophilous forest (Portuguese: "Floresta Ombrófila Mista") in Brazil, are a montane subtropical moist forest ecoregion. The forest ecosystem is located in southern and in few areas of ...

Yungas The Yungas ( Aymara ''yunka'' warm or temperate Andes or earth, Quechua ''yunka'' warm area on the slopes of the Andes) is a bioregion of a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru and Bolivia, and extends i ...

, and

Talamancan montane forests The Talamancan montane forests ecoregion, in the tropical moist broadleaf forest biome, are in montane Costa Rica and western Panama in Central America. Setting The Talamancan montane forests cover a discontinuous area of in Cordilleran mount ...

in the Americas,

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions o ...

forests including the Knysna-Amatole montane forests in Africa, and

Laurisilva Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and el ...

in the

n islands. In Madagascar and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

they also occur in lowland forests.

Ecology

Most relatively small fruit species are of great environmental importance because they are the food of many endemic birds and mammals, especially in Islands, and premontane and montane forests. The leaves of ''Ocotea'' species are the food source for the

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s of several species of endemic

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

, including several species of ''Memphis''. Some ''Memphis'' caterpillars feed solely on the leaves of one species of ''Ocotea''; for example ''M. mora'' feeds only on ''O. cernua'', and ''M. boisduvali'' feeds only on ''O. veraguensis'' Seed distribution of some ''Ocotea'' species is performed by

frugivorous A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance ...

birds such as

toucan Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Semnornis, Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful Beak, bills. The family includes five genus, genera and over ...

s, the

three-wattled bellbird The three-wattled bellbird (''Procnias tricarunculatus'') is a Central American migratory bird of the cotinga family. The sexes are very dissimilar in appearance. The male has a white head and throat and the remaining plumage is chestnut brown. ...

(family Cotingidae),

quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...

and

Cape parrot The Cape parrot (''Poicephalus robustus'') or Levaillant's parrot is a large, temperate forest dwelling parrot of the genus '' Poicephalus'' endemic to South Africa. It was formerly grouped as a subspecies along with the savanna-dwelling brown-ne ...

. ''Ocotea'' fruit is also consumed by several

Columbiformes Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

such as '' Columba trocaz'', Delegorgue's pigeon, Bolle's pigeon ('' Columba bollii''), African wood pigeon, and American doves. Most of the African tree species are ancient

paleoendemic Paleoendemism along with neoendemism is a possible subcategory of endemism. Paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have recently arisen, such as th ...

species, which in ancient times were widely distributed on the continent. This is not the case in the Americas: 89 species have been collected in Venezuela alone. Species of ''Ocotea'' can be attacked by various rot-inducing root pathogens, including ''Loweporus inflexibilis'', ''Phellinus apiahynus'' and ''

Phytophthora cinnamomi ''Phytophthora cinnamomi'', also known as cinnamon fungus, is a soil-borne water mould that produces an infection which causes a condition in plants variously called "dieback", "root rot", or (in certain '' Castanea'' species), "ink disease". O ...

''. Some ''Ocotea'' species are used as nesting sites by ants, which may live in leaf pockets or in hollowed-out stems. The ants patrol their host plants more frequently in response to disturbance or to the appearance of insect pests such as grasshoppers.

Uses

''Ocotea'' produce

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the ...

s, which are rich in

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel (''Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the kapu ...

and

safrole Safrole is an organic compound with the formula CH2O2C6H3CH2CH=CH2. It is a colorless oily liquid, although impure samples can appear yellow. A member of the phenylpropanoid family of natural products, it is found in sassafras plants, among ot ...

. East African camphorwood ('' O. usambarensis''), Peruvian rosewood ('' O. cernua'') and Brazilian sassafras ('' O. odorifera'') are traded internationally. Dried fruit cupules of ishpingo ('' O. quixos'') are used in Ecuador to flavor beverages, such as

colada morada Colada Morada is a drink that is part of Ecuador's gastronomic culture along with t'anta wawa bread dolls. It is a purple and thick liquid that is prepared with typical fruits of Ecuador, spices and corn flour. This drink is traditionally consu ...

. Some fast growing ''Ocotea'' tree species are harvested commercially for

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

. These include '' O. puberula'', '' O. bullata'' (black or true stinkwood) and '' O. usambarensis''. The timber is valued for its resistance to fungal decay. '' O. odorifera'' (Brazilian sassafras) and '' O. kuhlmanni'' are frequently used as

honey plant Honeybees often collect nectar, pollen, or both from the following species of plants, which are called honey plants, for making honey. This is not an exhaustive list of the flowering plant species Honeybees will visit. Acanthace ...

Selected species

The following are some of the species of ''Ocotea''. Distinguishing ''Ocotea'' species from ''

Nectandra ''Nectandra'' is a genus of plant in the family Lauraceae. They are primarily Neotropical, with ''Nectandra coriacea'' being the only species reaching the southernmost United States. They have fruit with various medical effects. Sweetwood is a co ...

'' and other close relatives is problematic. '' Povedadaphne'' may be better placed in ''Ocotea''. * ''

Ocotea aciphylla ''Ocotea aciphylla'' is a species of ''Ocotea'' in the plant family Lauraceae. It forms a tree 12–18 m tall. It has small hermaphrodite flowers of 3–4 mm long. It is found in the Amazon River basin mostly to 1200 m. References

O ...

'' * '' Ocotea acutifolia'' (

Nees Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Linnaeus. ...

) Mez * '' Ocotea albida'' * '' Ocotea albopunctulata'' * '' Ocotea amazonica'' * '' Ocotea amplifolia'' * '' Ocotea arnottiana'' * ''

Ocotea atirrensis ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' * '' Ocotea bangii'' * '' Ocotea basicordatifolia'' * '' Ocotea benthamiana'' * ''

Ocotea bofo ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' * ''

Ocotea bullata ''Ocotea bullata'', (stinkwood or black stinkwood, , , ) is a species of flowering tree native to South Africa. It produces very fine and valuable timber which was formerly much sought after to make furniture. Due to over-exploitation it is now ...

'' – black stinkwood, true stinkwood * '' Ocotea camphoromoea'' * '' Ocotea catharinensis'' * ''

Ocotea cernua ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of ...

'' – Peruvian rosewood * '' Ocotea clarkei'' * '' Ocotea corymbosa'' Mez * '' Ocotea cuneifolia'' * '' Ocotea cymbarum'' (often included in ''O. odorifera'') * '' Ocotea diospyrifolia'' (

Meisn. Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner (1 November 1800 – 2 May 1874) was a Swiss botanist. Biography Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his 40 ...

) Mez * '' Ocotea dispersa'' (

) Mez * '' Ocotea divaricata'' (

) Mez * ''

Ocotea domatiata ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' Mez * '' Ocotea fasciculata'' (Nees) Mez * ''

Ocotea floribunda ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' * ''

Ocotea foeniculacea ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' – black sweetwood * ''

'' – "til", "tilo" * '' Ocotea gabonensis'' * '' Ocotea glaucosericea'' * ''

Ocotea glaziovii ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of ...

'' Mez * '' Ocotea gracilis'' * '' Ocotea guianensis'' * ''

Ocotea harrisii ''Ocotea harrisii'' is a species of plant in the genus ''Ocotea'' of the family Lauraceae. It is an evergreen tree endemic to Jamaica. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occ ...

'' * '' Ocotea heterochroma'' * '' Ocotea indecora'' ( Schott) Mez * '' Ocotea insularis'' * '' Ocotea illustris'' * '' Ocotea infrafoveolata'' * '' Ocotea jelskii'' * '' Ocotea jorge-escobarii'' * '' Ocotea kenyensis'' * '' Ocotea lancifolia'' * '' Ocotea lancilimba'' * '' Ocotea langsdorffii'' * '' Ocotea leucoxylon'' – loblolly sweetwood * '' Ocotea mandonii'' * '' Ocotea marmellensis'' * ''

Ocotea matogrossensis ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' * '' Ocotea megaphylla'' * '' Ocotea minarum''

Mart. Carl Friedrich Philipp (Karl Friedrich Philipp) von Martius (17 April 1794 – 13 December 1868) was a German botany, botanist and explorer. Between 1817 and 1820, he travelled 10,000 km through Brazil while collecting botanical specimens. His m ...

* '' Ocotea monzonensis'' * '' Ocotea moschata'' – nemoca * '' Ocotea nemodaphne'' – laurel sassafras * '' Ocotea notata'' (

) Mez * '' Ocotea oblonga'' * '' Ocotea obtusata'' * ''

Ocotea odorifera ''Ocotea odorifera'' is a species of plant in the family Lauraceae. It is an evergreen tree in the genus ''Ocotea''. It is commonly known as Brazilian sassafras or American cinnamon; though it is not a true sassafras nor a true cinnamon, these ...

'' – Brazilian sassafras * '' Ocotea oocarpa'' * '' Ocotea otuzcensis'' * '' Ocotea pachypoda'' * '' Ocotea pauciflora'' * ''

Ocotea porosa ''Ocotea porosa'', commonly called imbuia or Brazilian walnut, is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. Its wood is very hard, and it is a major commercial timber species in Brazil. Taxonomy and naming It is often placed in the related g ...

'' * '' Ocotea porphyria'' * '' Ocotea portoricensis'' * '' Ocotea prunifolia'' * ''

Ocotea puberula ''Ocotea puberula'' is a species of evergreen tree in the plant genus ''Ocotea'' of the family Lauraceae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Mexico, Peru, and Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is ...

'' * '' Ocotea pulchra'' Vattimo-Gil * ''

Ocotea quixos ''Mespilodaphne quixos'' is a species of evergreen tree in the family Lauraceae, native to Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. It is one of the South American trees with a cinnamon-like aroma and is used as a spice called ''ispinku'' in Southern Quechua ...

'' – ishpingo * '' Ocotea raimondii'' * '' Ocotea rivularis'' * '' Ocotea robertsoniae'' * '' Ocotea rotundata'' * '' Ocotea rubrinervis'' * '' Ocotea rugosa'' * '' Ocotea sericea'' * '' Ocotea silvestris'' Vattimo-Gil * '' Ocotea smithiana'' * '' Ocotea spathulata'' * '' Ocotea spectabilis'' * '' Ocotea spixiana'' (

) Mez * ''

Ocotea staminoides ''Ocotea staminoides'' is a species of evergreen tree in the plant genus '' Ocotea'' of the family Lauraceae. It is endemic to Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest is ...

'' * ''

Ocotea tabacifolia ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' (

) Rohwer * ''

Ocotea teleiandra ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of t ...

'' (

) Mez * '' Ocotea urbaniana'' Mez * '' Ocotea uxpanapana'' * '' Ocotea vaccinioides''

* '' Ocotea velloziana'' * '' Ocotea velutina''

* ''

Ocotea viridiflora ''Ocotea viridiflora'' is a species of plant, an evergreen tree in the genus ''Ocotea'' of the family Lauraceae. It is found in Panama and possibly Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central Ameri ...

'' * '' Ocotea wrightii'' – Wright's laurel canelon

Formerly placed here

* '' Chlorocardium rodiei'' (bibiru, "greenheart"), as ''O. rodiei'' * ''

Nectandra coriacea ''Nectandra'' is a genus of plant in the family Lauraceae. They are primarily Neotropical, with ''Nectandra coriacea'' being the only species reaching the southernmost United States. They have fruit with various medical effects. Sweetwood is a co ...

'' ("lancewood"), as ''O. catesbyana, O. coriacea'' * '' Sextonia rubra'', as ''O. rubra

* '' Kuloa usambarensis'' – (East African camphorwood) as ''O. usambarensis''

Fossil record

†''Ocotea hradekensis'' from the early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, has been described from fragmentary

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

leaf compressions that have been found in the Kristina Mine at

Hrádek nad Nisou Hrádek nad Nisou (; , ) is a town in Liberec District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Hr� ...

North Bohemia North Bohemia (, ) is a region in the north of the Czech Republic. Location North Bohemia roughly covers the present-day NUTS regional unit of ''CZ04 Severozápad'' and the western part of ''CZ05 Severovýchod''. From an administrative perspec ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. ''O. foetens'' from the

is its nearest living relative.

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

†''Ocotea heerii'' leaf impressions of

Messinian The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.333 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Tortonian and is followed by the Zanclean, the fir ...

age (ca. 5.7 Ma) have been uncovered in Monte Tondo, northern

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains ( ; or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; or – a singular with plural meaning; )Latin ''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which would be segmented ''Apenn-inus'', often used with nouns s ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

.Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Messinian macrofossil floras of Tossignano and Monte Tondo (Vena del Gesso Basin, Romagna Apennines, northern Italy) - Vasilis Teodoridis, Zlatko Kvacek, Marco Sami and Edoardo Martinetto - December 2015 DOI: 10.14446/AMNP.2015.249.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Lauraceae genera Flora of the Neotropical realm Flora of the Afrotropical realm