Hopea wightiana | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malvales |
Family: | Dipterocarpaceae |
Genus: | Hopea |
Species: | H. wightiana |
Binomial name | |
Hopea wightiana | |
Hopea wightiana is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to India.
The Dipterocarpaceae are a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus Dipterocarpus, is derived from Greek and refers to the two-winged fruit. The largest genera are Shorea, Hopea, Dipterocarpus, and Vatica. Many are large forest-emergent species, typically reaching heights of 40–70 m, some even over 80 m, with the tallest known living specimen 93.0 m tall. The species of this family are of major importance in the timber trade. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. The greatest diversity of Dipterocarpaceae occurs in Borneo. Some species are now endangered as a result of overcutting, extensive illegal logging, and habitat conversion. They provide valuable woods, aromatic essential oils, balsam, and resins, and are a source for plywood.
Robert Wight MD FRS FLS was a Scottish surgeon in the East India Company, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading taxonomist in south India. He contributed to the introduction of American cotton. As a taxonomist he described 110 new genera and 1267 new species of flowering plants. He employed Indian botanical artists to illustrate many plants collected by himself and Indian collectors he trained. Some of these illustrations were published by William Hooker in Britain, but from 1838 he published a series of illustrated works in Madras including the uncoloured, six-volume Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis (1838–53) and two hand-coloured, two-volume works, the Illustrations of Indian Botany (1838–50) and Spicilegium Neilgherrense (1845–51). By the time he retired from India in 1853 he had published 2464 illustrations of Indian plants. The standard author abbreviation Wight is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
The state of Karnataka in South India has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It has a recorded forest area of 38720 km2 which constitutes 12.3467719% of the total geographical area of the state. These forests support 25% of the elephant population and 20% of the tiger population of India. Many regions of Karnataka are still unexplored and new species of flora and fauna are still found. The Western Ghats mountains in the western region of Karnataka are a biodiversity hotspot. Two sub-clusters of the Western Ghats, Talacauvery and Kudremukh in Karnataka, are in a tentative list of sites that could be designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks which fall outside these subclusters were included in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve in 1986, a UNESCO designation. Biligiriranga Hills in Karnataka is a place where Eastern Ghats meets Western Ghats. The state bird and state animal of Karnataka are Indian roller and the Indian elephant respectively. The state tree and state flower are sandalwood and lotus respectively. Karnataka is home to 406+ tigers.
Hopea is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The genus was named after John Hope, 1725–1786, the first Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. It contains some 113 species, distributed from Sri Lanka and southern India to southern China, and southward throughout Malesia to New Guinea. They are mainly main and subcanopy trees of lowland rainforest, but some species can become also emergent trees, such as Hopea nutans.
Hopea brachyptera is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to the Philippines.
Hopea chinensis is a species of medium-sized tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is found in China and northern Vietnam.
Hopea erosa is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to the southern end of the Western Ghats in India.
Hopea foxworthyi is an evergreen tree of the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to Sibuyan Island in the Philippines.
Hopea malibato is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to the Philippines.
Hopea odorata, or ta-khian, is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is a large tree reaching up to 45 m in height with the base of the trunk reaching a diameter of 4.5 m. It grows in forests, preferably near rivers, at altitudes between 0 and 600m. In places such as West Bengal and the Andaman Islands it is often planted as a shade tree. Valued for its wood, it is a threatened species in its natural habitat.
Hopea parviflora is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to India. It is called 'kampakam' or 'thampakam' in Malayalam and கோங்கு 'vellaikongu' or 'irubogam' in Tamil. Hopea parviflora is a tree growing 30 – 37 metres tall. The bole can be 150 cm in diameter. The tree produces a beautiful timber and is commonly harvested from the wild, both for local use and for trade. The plant is classified as 'Endangered' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Hopea philippinensis is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to the Philippines. It is an endangered species threatened by habitat loss.
Hopea ponga is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to India. It is also known as kambakam (കമ്പകം) in Malayalam language.
Hopea reticulata is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is found in Thailand and Vietnam. Some authors include Hopea exalata of Hainan, China to this species.
Hopea shingkeng was a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It was endemic to the eastern Himalaya region of India.
Hopea vaccinifolia is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. Its name is from the foliage being ' Vaccinium like.'
Utricularia wightiana is a small to medium-sized, probably perennial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. It is endemic to India and is mostly confined to Nilgiri and Kodaikanal hills of Tamil Nadu state and Attappadi hills of Kerala state of India. U. wightiana grows as a terrestrial plant in marshes and wet grasslands at altitudes from 1,000 m (3,281 ft) to 2,200 m (7,218 ft). It was originally described by Peter Taylor in 1986. It was named in honor of Robert Wight.
Cryptocarya wightiana is a small tree or shrub found in Indian Subcontinent.
Carex wightiana is a species of sedge and is native to India.