''Saurauia'' is a genus of

plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...

in the family

Actinidiaceae The Actinidiaceae are a small family (biology), family of flowering plants. The family has three genus, genera and about 360 species and is a member of the order Ericales. Distribution They are temperate and subtropical woody plant, woody vines, ...

. It comprises about over 300 species distributed in the tropics and subtropics of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and South and Central America. Genetic evidence and the cell biology of the group support

monophyly In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent comm ...

of the genus. Monophyly of the genus is also supported by micromorphological characters and by phylogenetic analysis, although the exact evolutionary relationships of ''Saurauia'' with the other two genera of the

, ''

Actinidia ''Actinidia'' is a genus of woody and, with a few exceptions, dioecious plants native to temperate eastern Asia, occurring throughout most of China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and extending north to southern areas of Russian Far East and south ...

'' and ''

Clematoclethra ''Clematoclethra'' is a genus of plants in the family Actinidiaceae. It contains about 20 species and is endemic to subtropical and temperate regions of central and western China. Monophyly of the group is supported by genetic evidence and als ...

'', are not well understood. It is also the only extant genus within its family whose natural distribution includes areas outside of Asia (tropical South and Central America).

Description

The floral characteristics of ''Saurauia'' are similar to those in the other members of the Actinidiaceae. The main floral differences between ''Saurauia'' and the other members are that the species of ''Saurauia'' have 3-5 carpels while ''

'' has 3-30 or more and ''

'' has 4 or 5. Also, ''Saurauia'' is the only genus in the Actinidiaceae whose members may be

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...

or functionally

dioecious 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 ...

Fossil record

The oldest

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 ...

records of ''Saurauia'' include characteristic seed

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ...

of the genus that are from the late

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

(about 89 Ma) of

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

. Two

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species were established, †''Saurauia alenae'' and †''Saurauia antique'', both are recorded from several assemblages in

and ranging in age from the late

to the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Species

Species include:

References

{{Authority control Ericales genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot