| Endiandra | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Endiandra pubens, leaf | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Laurales |
| Family: | Lauraceae |
| Genus: | Endiandra R.Br. |
| Species | |
Over 100 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Endiandra is a genus of about 126 species of plants, mainly trees, in the laurel family Lauraceae. They are commonly called "walnut" despite not being related to the Northern Hemisphere walnuts ( Juglans spp.) which are in the family Juglandaceae.
Shrubs and trees with lauroid leaves mostly, with bisexual flowers, usually with a large edible berry ovoid or globose, and seated directly on the pedicel. The seeds are dispersed by animals and birds. They have a broad distribution across South East Asia, Australia and into the western Pacific Ocean. [1]
Endiandra is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. Fossils show that before glaciations, when the climate was more humid and mild, species were distributed more widely. They are distributed in Asia, from India to Indochina, China, Malaysia, Australia, and Pacific islands, with 38 species endemic to Australia.
In Australia, they are often used as screen trees due to the thick foliage of a number of their species. Quite a few of the Australian species are rare, such as Endiandra globosa , Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata and Endiandra floydii .
The drying of the area during the glaciations caused that Endiandra to retreat to the mildest climate refuges, including Oceanic and southern islands and wetter mountain area. With the end of the last glacial period, Endiandra recovered some of its former range. They are mostly relicts of a type of vegetation disappeared, which originally covered much of the mainland of Australia, South America, Antarctica, South Africa, North America and other lands when their climate were more humid and warm. Although warm Cloud forests disappeared during the glaciations, they re-colonized large areas every time the weather was favorable again. Most of the Cloud forests are believed to have retreated and advanced during successive geological eras, and their species adapted to warm and wet gradually retreated and advanced, replaced by more cold-tolerant or drought-tolerant sclerophyll plant communities. Many of the then existing species became extinct because they could not cross the barriers posed by new oceans, mountains and deserts, but others found refuge as species relict in coastal areas and Islands.
Some species are well adapted to Tropical dry or deciduous forests, including Monsoon forests and Dry Monsoon forest. Some Endiandra present a convergent evolution due to ecological or physical drivers toward a similar solution, including analogous structures with species adapted to different environments, for example with plants adapted to Laurel forest habitat. These Endiandra resemble other genera in the family Lauraceae, and their leaves are lauroid type with berries eaten and dispersed mostly by birds. Others are even adapted to very wet media.
Some species are endangered and others have a very specialized ecological niche and consequently occupy small or specific areas. Although the majority of the species are the products of parapatric speciation, some groups have an ancient Gondwanan distribution and some groups responded to favourable climatic periods as opportunistic species and expanded across the available habitat, these last groups occur across wide distribution with close relatives and few species, indicating the recent divergence of these species.
Many species are having edible fruits. Some birds and bats that are specialised frugivores tend to eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, which functions for Biological dispersal. Others swallow the fruit and pass the seed intact through the gut. An incomplete list of birds that rely heavily on the fruit for their diet include members of the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Toucan. The fruits are an important food source for Palaeognathae highly dependent. Seed dispersal of various species in the genus is also carried out by fishes and big and small mammals as Pachyderms, Bovids, monkeys, arboreal rodents, porcupines, or possums.
There were 126 accepted species as of May 2021. [2] These are:
Melicope is a genus of about 240 species of shrubs and trees in the family Rutaceae, occurring from the Hawaiian Islands across the Pacific Ocean to tropical Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Plants in the genus Melicope have simple or trifoliate leaves arranged in opposite pairs, flowers arranged in panicles, with four sepals, four petals and four or eight stamens and fruit composed of up to four follicles.
Elaeocarpus is a genus of nearly five hundred species of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae native to the Western Indian Ocean, Tropical and Subtropical Asia, and the Pacific. Plants in the genus Elaeocarpus are trees or shrubs with simple leaves, flowers with four or five petals usually, and usually blue fruit.
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.
Dysoxylum is a flowering plant genus of trees and shrubs from the mahogany family, Meliaceae.
Cupaniopsis is a genus of about 67 species of trees and shrubs of the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. They grow naturally in New Guinea, New Caledonia, Australia, Torres Strait Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Sulawesi, Micronesia. Many species have been threatened with extinction globally or nationally, with official recognition by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and several national and state governments.
Beilschmiedia is a genus of trees and shrubs in family Lauraceae. Most of its species grow in tropical climates, but a few of them are native to temperate regions, and they are widespread in tropical Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. The best-known species to gardeners in temperate areas are B. berteroana and B. miersii because of their frost tolerance. Seeds of B. bancroftii were used as a source of food by Australian Aborigines. Timbers of some species are very valuable.
Gmelina is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae. It consists of about 35 species in Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Southeast Asia, India and a few in Africa. Some species such as G. arborea have been planted and/or become naturalised in India, Africa and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus in honour of botanist Johann Georg Gmelin.
Ochrosia is a genus of flowering plants, first described in 1789. It is in the family Apocynaceae, native to Southeast Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Pseuduvaria is a genus of the plant family Annonaceae and tribe Miliuseae: with a native range is Tropical Asia.
Wendlandia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is found in northeastern tropical Africa, and from tropical and subtropical Asia to Queensland.
Xanthostemon is a genus of trees and shrubs, constituting part of the myrtle plant family Myrtaceae. This genus was first described in 1857 by German–Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller. According to different official sources between 46 and 51 species are known to science. They grow naturally in New Caledonia, Australia, the Solomon Islands and Malesia, including the Philippines, New Guinea and Indonesia. The genera Pleurocalyptus and Purpureostemon from New Caledonia are morphologically close to Xanthostemon.
Parsonsia is a genus of woody vines in the family Apocynaceae. Species occur throughout Indomalaya, Australasia and Melanesia.
Atractocarpus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Its members are commonly known as native gardenias in Australia. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek terms atractos "spindle", and karpos "fruit", from the spindle-shaped fruit of the type species.
Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata, is a rare rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. Listed as endangered by extinction. It is a subspecies of the tree known as green-leaved rose walnut, or Mueller's walnut, Endiandra muelleri. It occurs from Maclean, New South Wales to Mackay, Queensland, usually in sub tropical rainforest at the lower altitudes.
Endiandra muelleri is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. Its habitat is in warm temperate rainforests on poorer soils. Distributed from the Allyn River in the Barrington Tops region in the south to Kroombit Tops to the north in central Queensland.
Endlicheria is a neotropical plant genus consisting of approximately 60 species, occurring mostly in northern South America and the Amazon region. Most species are medium-sized trees, sometime up to 40 metres in height, but a few species are shrubs. DNA molecular data shows that it is closely related to Rhodostemonodaphne and Ocotea.