Alfaroa | |
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Fruits and leaves of Alfaroa costaricensis . Costa Rica, northern Cordillera de Talamanca, Savegre valley near San Gerardo de Rivas, ca. 2300 m. | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fagales |
Family: | Juglandaceae |
Subfamily: | Engelhardioideae |
Genus: | Alfaroa Standl. |
Alfaroa is a genus of evergreen trees in the Juglandaceae family of the Fagales, growing in montane and submontane tropical rain forests in Central America. The wood is characterized by solid pith, pink heartwood, and vessels with scalariform perforations, as well as simple perforations.
The (usually pinnately compound) leaves are evergreen and lack stipules. They are alternate, rarely opposite.
The plants are monoecious, the male flowers being in lateral panicles (several pairs of catkins on an inflorescence) and the female flowers born terminally either in a single spike or in a hermaphroditic panicle including several paired male catkins. Each flower has a wide bract, two bracteoles, and four sepals. The flowers are sessile. The male flowers have a round or oblong receptacle and six to ten stamens. The pollen grains are approximately 24 micrometers in diameter and are slightly triangular in polar view.
The small fruits are nuts, one-chambered at the apex and eight-chambered (sometimes four-chambered) at the base. Germination is hypogeal.
Alfaroa includes the following species (This list may be incomplete):
A. guatemalensis and A. roxburghiana were originally described as belonging to the genus Engelhardia . The monotypic genus Alfaropsis I. A. Iljinsk has also been erected for A. roxburghiana.
Rambutan is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae. The name also refers to the edible fruit produced by this tree. The rambutan is native to Southeast Asia. It is closely related to several other edible tropical fruits, including the lychee, longan, pulasan, and quenepa.
Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds.
Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the plant genus Carpinus in the family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768 species of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. It is most diverse in the rainforests of Malesia, India, tropical Africa and tropical America.
The Juglandaceae are a plant family known as the walnut family. They are trees, or sometimes shrubs, in the order Fagales. Members of this family are native to the Americas, Eurasia, and Southeast Asia.
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus Carya, which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexico, and two to four are native to Canada. A number of hickory species are used for products like edible nuts or wood.
Castanopsis, commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. A total of 58 species are native to China, with 30 endemic; the other species occur further south, through Indochina to Indonesia and the Philippines, mountainous areas of Taiwan, and also in Japan. The English name chinkapin is shared with other related plants, including the golden chinkapins of the Pacific United States, which are sometimes included within Castanopsis but are more often considered a separate but very closely related genus, Chrysolepis.
Carya sinensis is a species of tree native to southwestern China and northern Vietnam, in the hickory genus Carya. It is sometimes called Chinese hickory or beaked hickory. It is closely related to Carya kweichowensis.
Kleinhovia hospita is an evergreen, tropical tree native to Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of tropical Asia and the Pacific. It is monotypic, being the only species in the genus Kleinhovia.
Afzelia africana, the African mahogany, afzelia, lenke, lengue, apa, or doussi, is a tree species in the family Fabaceae.
Juglans jamaicensis, the West Indian walnut, nogal, or palo de nuez, is a species of walnut in the Juglandaceae family native to the Greater Antilles.
Vatica chinensis is a species of flowering tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae, found in South Asia.
Alfaroa costaricensis, also known as campano chile, chiciscua, gaulin, gavilán Colorado, or gavilancillo, is nut bearing timber tree in the Juglandaceae family. It is native to the Neotropics, from Mexico, through Central America to Colombia.
Alfaroa williamsii is a tropical monoecious cloud forest dwelling species of tree first recognized in the Cordillera Central of Nicaragua at an altitude of 1.3 km. The mature tree is 15–25 m in height, with a 0.5 m DBH. The sub-opposite to alternate pinnately compound leaves bear three to five opposite to sub-opposite pairs of coriaceous leaflets, glabrous above and covered with minute scales below. The pollen is born on panicles consisting of several erect catkins. The small, nearly round, glabrous, ribbed fruits are born on a sparsely flowered spike.
Oreomunnea mexicana is a species of plant in the family Juglandaceae, which grows in the tropical rain forests of Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama at altitudes from 1–1.7 km. Common names include guayabo amarillo and remiendo. The chromosome number is 2n = 32.
Alfaroa manningii, or gavilán colorado, is a valued lumber tree of the Walnut family endemic to the premontane Costa Rican rain forest. The specific epithet honors the American botanist Wayne Eyer Manning (1899–2004).
Mallotus tetracoccus, also known as the rusty kamala, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is a tree species found in parts of south Asia, typically occurring in the edges of tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.
Engelhardia roxburghiana is a tree in the family Juglandaceae. It is named for the Scottish botanist William Roxburgh.
Cryptocarya anamalayana is a rare rainforest tree endemic to the southern Western Ghats, India. The specific epithet of the name refers to the Anamalai Hills, a major area of its distribution. The species considered endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Diospyros paniculata, or the panicle-flowered ebony, is a species of tree in the ebony family. Endemic to the Western Ghats area of India and parts of Bangladesh, the species is currently listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List.
Elliott, L. L., Mindell, R. A., & Stockey, R. A., "Beardia vancouverensis Gen. et Sp. Nov. (Juglandaceae): Permineralized Fruits from the Eocene of British Columbia", American Journal of Botany93(4): 557–565, 2006
Manchester, Steven R., "Fossil Wood of the Engelhardieae (Junglandaceae) from the Eocene of North America: Engelhardioxylon Gen. Nov.", Bot. Gasz144(1)157-163, 1983.
J. A. Vozzo (ed.) Tropical Tree Seed Manual "Part II—Species Descriptions", USDA Forest Service