| Calophyllum | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Calophyllum inophyllum | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Calophyllaceae |
| Genus: | Calophyllum L. |
| Species | |
| Synonyms [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] | |
| |
Calophyllum is a genus of tropical flowering plants in the family Calophyllaceae. They are mainly distributed in Asia, with some species in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, and the Pacific Islands. [7]
Members of the genus Calophyllum native to Malesia and Wallacea are of particular importance to traditional shipbuilding of the larger Austronesian outrigger ships and were carried with them in the Austronesian expansion as they migrated to Oceania and Madagascar. They were comparable in importance to how oaks were in European shipbuilding and timber industries. The most notable species is the mastwood ( Calophyllum inophyllum ) which grows readily in the sandy and rocky beaches of the island environments that the Austronesians colonized. [8] [9]
Calophyllum are trees or shrubs. They produce a colorless, white, or yellow latex. The oppositely arranged leaves have leathery blades often borne on petioles. [7] The leaves are distinctive, with narrow parallel veins alternating with resin canals. [10] The inflorescence is a cyme or a thyrse of flowers that grows from the leaf axils or at the ends of branches. In the flower the sepals and petals may look similar and are arranged in whorls. There are many stamens. The fruit is a drupe with thin layers of flesh over a large seed. [7]
Many species are used for their wood. Some are hardwood trees that can reach 30 meters in height. They tend to grow rapidly. The outer sapwood is yellowish, yellow-brown, or orange, sometimes with a pink tinge, and the inner heartwood is light reddish to red-brown. The wood has a streaked, ribboned, or zig-zag grain. The wood has been used to build boats, flooring, and furniture, and made into plywood. [11] [12] Calophyllum wood may be sold under the name bitangor, and the species may be used interchangeably; one shipment may contain boards from several different species. [13]
Plants of the genus are also known for their chemistry, with a variety of secondary metabolites isolated, such as coumarins, xanthones, flavonoids, and triterpenes. Compounds from the genus have been reported to have cytotoxic, anti-HIV, antisecretory, cytoprotective, antinociceptive, molluscicidal, and antimicrobial properties. Some plants are used in folk medicine to treat conditions such as peptic ulcers, tumors, infections, pain, and inflammation. [14]
C. inophyllum is the source of tamanu oil, a greenish, nutty-scented oil of commercial value. It has been used as massage oil, topical medicine, lamp oil, and waterproofing, and is still used in cosmetics. Tacamahac is the resin of the tree. This species is also cultivated for its wood and planted in coastal landscaping as a windbreak and for erosion control. [13]
A stylized Calophyllum is featured on the national coat of arms of Nauru.
As of January 2024, Plants of the World Online includes: [1] [7]
Mammea is a flowering plant genus with about 70 species in the family Calophyllaceae. Its members are evergreen trees having edible fruits. The flowers are polygamous, with a unitary calyx opening into two or three valvate sepals. There are 4 to 8 petals. Berries are formed, containing 1 to 4 seeds. The leaves are rigid, coriaceous and often have pellucid dots.
Cissus is a genus of approximately 350 species of lianas in the grape family (Vitaceae). They have a cosmopolitan distribution, though the majority are to be found in the tropics.
Litsea is a genus of evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes a large number of accepted species in tropical and subtropical areas of North America and Asia.
Sterculia is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae: subfamily Sterculioideae. Members of the genus are colloquially known as tropical chestnuts. Sterculia may be monoecious or dioecious, and its flowers unisexual or bisexual.
Mesua is a genus of flowering plants in the family Calophyllaceae, native to tropical southern Asia. Common names include ironwood and rose chestnut.
Kayea is a plant genus in the family Calophyllaceae. Its species range from Bangladesh and the eastern Himalayas to Sri Lanka, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, the Philippines, New Guinea, and Queensland.
Tetrastigma is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterized by their four-lobed stigmas. The species are found in subtropical and tropical regions of Asia, Malaysia, and Australia, where they grow in primary rainforest, gallery forest and monsoon forest and moister woodland. Species of this genus are notable as being the sole hosts of parasitic plants in the family Rafflesiaceae, one of which, Rafflesia arnoldii, produces the largest single flower in the world. Tetrastigma is the donor species for horizontal gene transfer to Sapria and Rafflesia due to multiple gene theft events.
The genus Cayratia consists of species of vine plants, typical of the tribe Cayratieae. Some of them are useful, and they are found in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia, Africa, Australia, and islands of the Pacific Ocean.
Archidendron is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It includes 98 species which range from India through Indochina, southern China, Taiwan, Malesia, and Papuasia to Queensland and New South Wales.
Polyalthia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. There are approximately 90 species distributed from Africa to Asia and the Pacific.
Polyosma is a genus of about 90 species of trees native to south-east Asia. They occur from China south through south-east Asia to the east coast of Australia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.
Ampelocissus is a genus of Vitaceae having 90 or more species found variously in tropical Africa, Asia, Central America, and Oceania. The type species, A. latifolia, was originally treated under its basionym, Vitis latifolia, and was collected from the Indian subcontinent.
Media related to Calophyllum at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Calophyllum at Wikispecies