Phoebe (plant) Last updated January 30, 2026 Genus of flowering plants
Phoebe evergreen trees and shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae . There are 75 accepted species in the genus, distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and New Guinea. [ 1] 35 species occur in China , of which 27 are endemic. [ 2] The first description of the genus was of the type species P. lanceolata made in 1836 by Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in Systema Laurinarum , p. 98.
Description Phoebe species are evergreen shrubs or trees with pinnately veined leaves. The flowers are hermaphrodite, white, small and fragrant, and are grouped in branched terminal inflorescences in the form of panicles. The bracts are all of equal length or the outer ones are slightly shorter than the inner ones. The ovary is oval to spherical. The stigma is capitate or bowl-shaped. The fruits are enveloped by the enlarged bracts. Fruits are usually oval to spherical. The fruit is a berry and has only a single seed that is frequently dispersed by birds.
Distribution Up to 100 species of Phoebe are currently reported in Asia, with 27 species endemic to China . [ 2]
Ecology The fruits of the genus are fleshy berries.
Species 75 species are currently accepted: [ 1]
Phoebe angustifolia Meisn. – Indochina, Assam, and China (southeastern Yunnan) Phoebe assamica Kalyankumar – northeastern India Phoebe attenuata (Nees) Nees – Eastern Himalayas, northeastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Vietnam Phoebe baishyae M.Gangop. - Arunachal Pradesh in India Phoebe birmanica Kosterm. – Myanmar Phoebe bootanica (Meisn.) M.Gangop. , synonym of Phoebe hainesiana – central and eastern Himalayas and northeastern India Phoebe bournei (Hemsl.) Y.C.Yang - southern China and Hainan Phoebe brachythyrsa H.W.Li – northeastern Yunnan in China Phoebe calcarea S.Lee & F.N.Wei – Guangxi and southern Guizhou in China Phoebe canescens (Blume) Miq. – Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra Phoebe cathia (D.Don) Kosterm. – southwestern and northeastern India, eastern Himalayas, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam Phoebe cavaleriei (H.Lév.) Y.Yang & Bing Liu – Sichuan, northeastern Yunnan, and Guizhou in China Phoebe chartacea (Blume) Miq. – Java Phoebe chekiangensis C.B.Shang – China (eastern Jiangxi, northern Fujian, and northern Zhejiang) Phoebe clemensii C.K.Allen – New Guinea Phoebe cooperiana P.C.Kanjilal & Das [ 3] – northeastern India Phoebe crassipedicella S.Lee & F.N.Wei – China (southern Guizhou and northwestern Guangxi) Phoebe cuneata (Blume) Blume – Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi Phoebe cuspidata Blume – Java Phoebe dehaasiifolia Kosterm. – Thailand Phoebe elliptica Blume – Peninsular Malaysia, Java Phoebe excelsa (Blume) Nees – Java Phoebe faberi (Hemsl.) Chun – central China Phoebe forbesii Gamble – New Guinea Phoebe formosana (Hayata) Hayata – Taiwan and Anhui Phoebe gamblei Kamik. – Java Phoebe glabrifolia Merr. – Philippines Phoebe glaucifolia S.K.Lee & F.N.Wei – southeastern Tibet and central Yunnan Phoebe glaucophylla H.W.Li – southeastern Yunnan Phoebe grandis (Nees) Merr. – Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi Phoebe hainanensis Merr. – Hainan Phoebe hedgei M.Gangop. & A.Sarmah – Arunachal Pradesh Phoebe hekouensis Bing Liu, W.Y.Jin, L.N.Zhao & Y.Yang – Yunnan Phoebe holosericea Blume – Sumatra Phoebe hui W.C.Cheng ex Y.C.Yang – China (Sichuan, northeastern Yunnan, and southern Shaanxi) Phoebe hunanensis Hand.-Mazz. – central and southern China Phoebe hungmaoensis S.K.Lee – China (Hainan and southwestern and southern Guangxi), Vietnam Phoebe javanica Meisn. – Java Phoebe kjellbergii Kosterm. – Sulawesi Phoebe kunstleri Gamble – Vietnam, Laos, Borneo Phoebe kwangsiensis H.Liu – China (southwestern Guizhou and northwestern Guangxi) Phoebe laevis Kosterm. – Borneo Phoebe lanceolata (Nees) Nees – India, Bangladesh, eastern Himalaya, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia, China (southern Yunnan) Phoebe legendrei Lecomte – China (western and southeastern Sichuan and northwestern Yunnan) Phoebe leiophylla Miq. – Borneo and Sulawesi Phoebe liana Y.Yang – China (Guizhou) Phoebe lichuanensis S.K.Lee – China (southwestern Hubei) Phoebe longepetiolata Kosterm. – Sumatra Phoebe lucida Blume – Sumatra and Borneo Phoebe lummaoensis M.Gangop. – Myanmar Phoebe macrocarpa C.Y.Wu , synonym of Phoebe poilanei – China (southeastern Yunnan) and northern Vietnam Phoebe macrophylla Blume – Vietnam, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Maluku, New Guinea Phoebe megacalyx H.W.Li – China (southeastern Yunnan) to northern Vietnam Phoebe motuonan S.K.Lee & F.N.Wei – southeastern Tibet Phoebe neurantha (Hemsl.) Gamble – central and southern China Phoebe neuranthoides S.K.Lee & F.N.Wei – central and southern China Phoebe nigrifolia S.K.Lee & F.N.Wei – China (southwestern Guangxi) Phoebe obtusa Blume ex Meisn. – Java Phoebe pallida (Nees) Nees – western and central Himalaya, Northeastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam Phoebe petelotii Kosterm. ex H.H.Pham – Vietnam Phoebe pierrei Lecomte – Cambodia Phoebe prazeri M.Gangop. – Myanmar Phoebe puwenensis W.C.Cheng – China (southern Yunnan) Phoebe rufescens H.W.Li – China (southwestern Yunnan) Phoebe scortechinii (Gamble) Kochummen ex de Kok – Peninsular Malaysia Phoebe sheareri (Hemsl.) Gamble – southern China and Vietnam Phoebe siamensis Kosterm. – Thailand Phoebe sterculioides (Elmer) Merr. – Philippines Phoebe tavoyana Hook.f. – China (Yunnan, southeastern Guangxi, and Guangdong), Indochina, and Peninsular Malaysia Phoebe tenuifolia Kosterm. – Philippines and Sulawesi Phoebe wightii Meisn. – southwestern India Phoebe yaiensis S.K.Lee – China (southwestern Guangxi and Hainan) and Vietnam Phoebe yunnanensis H.W.Li – China (western Yunnan) Phoebe zhennan S.K.Lee & F.N.Wei – China (Sichuan, western Hubei, and northwestern Guizhou)Phylogeny After [ 4]
clade I Mac. robusta
Mac. sp. W14071
Mac. sp. W14068
Pho. minutiflora
Mac. japonica
Mac. decursinervis
Mac. grijsii
Mac. platycarpa
Mac. yunnanensis
Mac. kwangtungensis
Mac. oculodracontis
Mac. duthiei
Mac. gamblei
Mac. oreophila
Mac. leptophylla
Pho. faberi
Mac. salicoides
Mac. pomifera
Mac. salicina
Mac. thunbergii
Mac. breviflora
Mac. pingii
Mac. shweliensis
Mac gongshanensis
Mac. phoenicis
Mac. monticola
Deh. caesia
Deh. hainanensis
Als. sp. W17084
Deh. sp. L20070187
Als. semecarpifolia
Als. huanglianshanensis
Als. gigaphylla
Not. umbelliflora
Deh. sp. A34
Deh. incrassata
clade II Persea clade IPer. aurata
Per. splendens
Per. major
Per. weberbaueri
Per. sp. V25232
Per. sp. W19517
Per. alba
Per. sp. W14875
Per. sp. B21834
Per. lingue
Per. caerulea
Per. borbonia
Per. haenkeana
Per. palustris
Per. indica
Per. areolatocostae
Persea clade IIPer. americana
Per. styermarkii
Apo. barbujana
clade III Phoebe clade IPho. formosana
Pho. chekiangensis
Pho. nanmu
Pho. neurantha
Pho. lanceolata
Pho. sp. L20070260
Pho. zhennan
Pho. macrocarpa
Pho. angustifolia
Phoebe clade IIPho. cuneata
Pho. elliptica
Pho. sp. A49
Pho. puwenensis
Pho. hungmaoensis
Pho. megacalyx
Per. nudigemma
Als. rugosa
Als. hainanensis
Als. sp. W14264
Per. sphaerocarpa
Per. sp. W21874
Als. petiolaris
Als. andersonii
Act. cupularis
Act. trichocarpa
Lit. verticillata
Lin. megaphylla
Lit. auriculata
Lin. erythrocarpa
Machias clade
Alseodaphne-Dehaasia clade
Persea clade
Phoebe clade
Alseodaphne-Persea group
Outgroups
References 1 2 Phoebe NeesPlants of the World Online , Kew Science. Accessed 29 August 2022. 1 2 Fa-Nan Wei & Henk van der Werff. "Phoebe " . Flora of China . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. Retrieved 29 August 2022 . ↑ "Phoebe cooperiana P. C. Kanj. & Das | Species" . Indiabiodiversity.org . Retrieved 22 November 2021 . ↑ Li, Lang; Li, Jie; Rohwer, Jens G.; van der Werff, Henk; Wang, Zhi-Hua; Li, Hsi-Wen (September 2011). "Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Persea group (Lauraceae) and its biogeographic implications on the evolution of tropical and subtropical Amphi-Pacific disjunctions" . American Journal of Botany . 98 (9): 1520– 1536. doi :10.3732/ajb.1100006 . PMID 21860056 . ↑ A review of the early Miocene Mastixioid flora of the Kristina Mine at Hrádek nad Nisou in North Bohemia, The Czech Republic, January 2012 by F. Holý, Z. Kvaček and Vasilis Teodoridis - ACTA MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE Series B – Historia Naturalis • vol. 68 • 2012 • no. 3–4 • pp. 53–118 This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
