| Retrophyllum vitiense | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| (unranked): | Gymnospermae |
| Division: | Pinophyta |
| Class: | Pinopsida |
| Order: | Pinales |
| Family: | Podocarpaceae |
| Genus: | Retrophyllum |
| Species: | R. vitiense |
| Binomial name | |
| Retrophyllum vitiense Seem. C.N.Page | |
Retrophyllum vitiense is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a large evergreen rainforest emergent tree native to Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.
Retrophyllum vitiense is a large evergreen tree. The trunk is usually erect, straight and terete. Large trees frequently feature a bole clear of branches for the first 20 meters and a buttressed trunk base. [2] The crown of a young plant is often pyramidal while older trees generally have rounded or spreading crowns. Branches are ascending or spreading in the upper parts of the crown, but pendulous in the shaded parts. [2] The initially brown and smooth bark weathers gray and develops vertical fissures with age, flaking in strips. [2] [3]
The leaves are mostly flat with a decurrent base and a spreading blade connected by a short twisting petiole, but leading and cone-bearing shoots also have smaller scale-like leaves. [2] [3] The phyllotaxis is spiral though the leaves of the lateral shoots are twisted to lie pectinately in two ranks and appear nearly opposite. [2] [3] The pectinate leaves are twisted at their petioles in opposite directions on each side of the shoot causing the adaxial sides of the leaves face up on one side of the shoot and down on the other side. The leaf blades are usually 15-25 millimeters long, 3-5 millimeters wide and ovate-lanceolate or ovate-elliptic in shape. [2] Juvenile leaves are often larger. [3] The narrow midrib of the leaf is conspicuous on the abaxial side. Stomata are present on both sides of the leaf. [2]
Retrophyllum vitiense is dioecious. The cylindrical male pollen cones are borne apically on short lateral or subterminal branchlets. They grow in groups of two or three. A pollen cone consists of numerous spirally arranged microsporophylls around a 10-25 millimeter long rachis. The microsporophylls are triangular and keeled, bearing two pollen sacs each. [2] [3]
The female seed cones are borne on short lateral branchlets. A seed cone has several sterile cone scales and usually just one fertile scale. The fertile cone scale has a single inverted ovule developing into a seed. The seed is entirely enclosed by a modified ovuliferous scale known as the epimatium. The epimatium is green or glaucous at first and becomes fleshy and red in color at maturity. [2] [3] The mature epimatium is generally 14-20 millimeters long, 10-13 millimeters wide and pyriform in shape. The subglobose seed inside is 12-16 millimeters long. [2]
Retrophyllum vitiense is native to Southeast Asia and the southwestern Pacific. It occurs naturally on the Indonesian Maluku Islands, Papua New Guinean New Guinea and New Britain, the Fiji islands and the Santa Cruz Islands of Solomon Islands. [4] [3]
Retrophyllum vitiense is a large rainforest tree. It grows in tropical lowland and montane rainforests ranging in altitude from near the sea level to 1800 meters. [4] The mean annual precipitation of its natural habitat is 3290 millimeters. [3] The species usually occurs as an emergent tree growing above the canopy in forests dominated by other trees. It commonly occurs together with other tropical conifers such as trees of the genera Podocarpus , Dacrycarpus , Dacrydium and Agathis . [4]
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta, also known as Coniferophyta or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs. Examples include cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families, 68 genera, and 629 living species.
Thuja is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae. There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to Thujopsis. Members are commonly known as arborvitaes, thujas or cedars.
Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress family, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera, which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to 116 m (381 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red- brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the subfamily Abietoideae of Pinaceae, the pine family. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock. Unlike the latter, Tsuga species are not poisonous.
A conifer cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cone, which produces pollen, is usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity. The name "cone" derives from Greek konos (pinecone), which also gave name to the geometric cone. The individual plates of a cone are known as scales. The umbo of a conifer cone refers to the first year's growth of a seed scale on the cone, showing up as a protuberance at the end of the two-year-old scale.
Podocarpus is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family, the Podocarpaceae. The name comes from Greek πούς + καρπός. Podocarpus species are evergreen shrubs or trees, usually from 1 to 25 m tall, known to reach 40 m (130 ft) at times. The cones have two to five fused cone scales, which form a fleshy, berry-like, brightly coloured receptacle at maturity. The fleshy cones attract birds, which then eat the cones and disperse the seeds in their droppings. About 97 to 107 species are placed in the genus depending on the circumscription of the species.
Nageia is a genus of conifers belonging to the podocarp family Podocarpaceae. Nageia includes evergreen shrubs and trees, from one to 54 meters in height. A 2009 treatment of the genus recognized five species. Some authors consider Nageia formosensis to be a separate species from Nageia nagi, thus recognizing six species. The podocarp genera have been reshuffled by various botanists. Most recently, several species formerly classed as Nageia were moved to the new genus Retrophyllum, while Nageia falcata and Nageia mannii were moved to the new genus Afrocarpus.
Afrocarpus is a genus of conifers of the family Podocarpaceae. Two to six species are recognized. They are evergreen trees native to Africa. Afrocarpus was designated a genus in 1989, when several species formerly classified in Podocarpus and Nageia were reclassified.
Athrotaxis is a genus of two to three species of conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. The genus is endemic to western Tasmania, where they grow in high altitude temperate rainforests.
Retrophyllum is a genus of conifers in the family Podocarpaceae. It contains five generally recognized extant species with a disjunct distribution in the Southern Hemisphere, found in Papuasia and also in South America. Retrophyllum are evergreen trees typically occurring in tropical rainforests and cloud forests.
A strobilus is a structure present on many land plant species consisting of sporangia-bearing structures densely aggregated along a stem. Strobili are often called cones, but some botanists restrict the use of the term cone to the woody seed strobili of conifers. Strobili are characterized by a central axis surrounded by spirally arranged or decussate structures that may be modified leaves or modified stems.
Abies guatemalensis, the Guatemalan fir or pinabete, is an evergreen tree native to Central America and is the southernmost member of the genus Abies being spread to the south lower than 14° N. Its range is from southern Mexico in the north to Honduras and El Salvador in the south. It is a warm-loving and moisture-loving tree of the tropical mountain coniferous and mixed cloud forests of these countries. The Guatemalan fir is an almost completely non-frost-resistant tree. Due to logging and loss of habitat, the tree is considered threatened and is protected in CITES Appendix I.
Calocedrus macrolepis is a conifer native to southwest China, northern Vietnam, northern Laos, extreme northern Thailand and northeastern Myanmar.
Tsuga chinensis, commonly referred to as the Taiwan or Chinese hemlock, or in Chinese as tieshan, is a coniferous tree species native to China, Taiwan, Tibet and Vietnam. The tree is quite variable and has many recognised varieties, though some are also maintained to be separate species by certain authorities. The tree was recently discovered in the mountains of northern Vietnam, making that the southernmost extension of its range.
Dacrydium guillauminii, commonly known as cat-tail Rimu or swamp Dacrydium, is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is found only in New Caledonia. It is a slow growing shrub or small tree with roots that grow in water, and reaches a height between 1 and 2 metres.
Libocedrus bidwillii, also called pāhautea, kaikawaka or New Zealand cedar, is a species of Libocedrus, endemic to New Zealand. It is in the cypress family Cupressaceae.
Libocedrus plumosa, with the common name kawaka, is a species of Libocedrus that is endemic to New Zealand.
Libocedrus yateensis is a species of Libocedrus, endemic to New Caledonia, occurring in a few small, isolated populations in low altitude riverside sites at 150–600 m altitude in rainforest scrub. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Podocarpus coriaceus, commonly known as the yucca plum pine, is a species of conifer, an evergreen tree in the family Podocarpaceae. It is found in the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Retrophyllum rospigliosii is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a large evergreen tree native to the montane rainforests of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia in South America.
