This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(March 2023) |
Syzygium thompsonii | |
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A specimen from Kew's herbarium | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Myrtales |
Family: | Myrtaceae |
Genus: | Syzygium |
Species: | S. thompsonii |
Binomial name | |
Syzygium thompsonii (Merr.) N.Snow (2010) | |
Synonyms | |
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Syzygium thompsonii (Chamorro: atoto) is an endemic tree of the Mariana Islands of Guam, Rota, and Saipan [1] with a striking appearance due to its abundance of white flowers and edible fruit that grow directly from the trunk. [2] It is related to the Malay apple but bears smaller tart fruit.
Edward D. Merrill, in An Enumeration of the Plants of Guam (1914), [2] described the tree from specimens sent to him from Guam:
The taxonomic key by Ryozo Kanehira indicates that the leaves are 8–14 cm (3.1–5.5 in) long. [3]
F. Raymond Fosberg, in TheFlora of Guam (1970), [4] mostly quotes Merrill's description, except:
Neil Snow & Jan Veldkamp wrote in Austrobaileya (2010) that the specimens from Guam seemed to "have more or less flattened branchlets with buds 11-13 mm long." This differed from specimens from Rota and Saipan, which "tend to be slightly 4-angled and have buds (6-)7-8.5 mm long," suggesting these qualify as separate subspecies. [5]
Syzygium thompsonii is a canopy tree found in limestone forests. [6] [7] It is listed as endemic only to the 3 southernmost Mariana islands: Guam, Rota and Saipan. [1] [4] On Guam, the tree is only found in the northern limestone forest. [8] The Smithsonian's US National Herbarium holds specimens from Saipan, collected from Water Cave and the north slope of Mt. Tapochau, [9] [10] It also holds specimens from Rota, collected from the limestone forest at the start of the last ascent into the savanna, and another from the high limestone area below the top cliffs of the western end of Rota. [11]
Although the critically endangered Rota white-eye ( Zosterops rotensis ) is primarily insectivorous, it has been observed feeding on various fruits, including that of Syzygium thompsonii. [12] [13]
No insects were reported to have been collected from Syzygium thompsonii, based on a search of the Bishop Museum's Insects of Micronesia publications between 1955 and 2017. [14]
A 2016-2017 survey of the Northwest Field in northern Guam observed 36 specimens of the federally threatened orchid, Tuberolabium guamense, growing on three Syzygium thompsonii trees. [15]
Syzygium thompsonii has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). [16] A 2000 survey of plots on Anderson Airforce Base in northern Guam found no Syzygium thompsonii trees, nor did the 2008 Botanical Survey of the War in the Pacific National Historical Park Guam, which includes limestone forest in west-central Guam. [17] A 2013 forest inventory identified Syzygium thompsonii on only two of 48 island-wide plots, but estimated there were 178,000 trees on Guam (although with a substantial sampling error of 172,000). This inventory found Syzygium thompsonii to be the 29th most common tree of 49 species listed. Syzygium thompsonii accounted for 0.24% of all trees identified. All specimens were small, measuring between 1.0- and 4.9-inches diameter at breast height. [18] The 2016-2017 survey of the Northwest Field on Guam found Syzygium thompsonii occurrence as "Occasional." [15]
Syzygium thompsonii is not mentioned by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré in his 1826 botanical review of the 1819 Freycinet Expedition of the Marianas, [19] nor by William E. Safford in his 1905 Useful Plants of Guam. [20] The earliest known specimens were collected in 1912 by John B. Thompson, who was the Special Agent in Charge at the US Department of Agriculture's Guam Agricultural Experiment Station on Guam. The species was first described in 1914 by E.D. Merrill in The Philippine Journal of Science, based on specimens sent to him by Thompson. Merrill originally named the species Eugenia thompsonii sp. nov. [2] in recognition of Thompson. These early specimens were spared from the destruction of the National Herbarium of the Philippines during World War II [21] and are now kept in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, [22] the Herbarium Pacificum of the Bernice Bishop Museum, Hawaii, [23] and the US National Herbarium in Washington, D.C. [24] Merrill includes a description of the tree as a "striking species" due to its foliage and the abundance of cauline flowers (growing directly from the trunk). [2]
Ludwig Diels (1921) provided a brief description of the tree, which he named Jambosa thompsonii. He also provided the indigenous name "makupa halomtano," måkupa being the CHamorro name for the Malay apple, which is cultivated on Guam, and hålom tåno' meaning literally "interior land." [25] [26] [27]
The first known record of the CHamorro name "atoto" is reported to be by Fosberg in 1946. [28] However, the species is not mentioned in Fosberg's The Vegetation of Micronesia (1960). [29] Stone, in The Flora of Guam (1970), commented on its rarity on Guam and described the tree as "a fine, handsome species worthy of cultivation." [4]
In 2010, Snow & Veldkamp reclassified the species as Syzygium thompsonii (Merr.) N.Snow comb. nov., which is now the accepted species name. [5] These authors also advised that the species should be merged with Syzygium trukense and Syzygium stelechanthum , both from the Caroline Islands. However, in 2012, Costion & Lorence disagreed with the merger, arguing that Syzygium trukense grows on volcanic soils of Chuuk, whereas the specimens on Guam is restricted to the northern limestone forest and has not been found growing in the volcanic soils of southern Guam. They further commented that it would be an unlikely geographical distribution involving only the southern Mariana Islands and Chuuk. [7] The Plants of the World Online database continues to list these 3 species as distinct from each other. [30]
The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The CNMI includes the 14 northernmost islands in the Mariana Archipelago; the southernmost island, Guam, is a separate U.S. territory. The Northern Mariana Islands were listed by the United Nations as a non-self governing territory until 1990.
The Guam flying fox, also known as the little Marianas fruit bat, was a small megabat from Guam in the Marianas Islands in Micronesia that was confirmed extinct due to hunting or habitat changes. It was first recorded in 1931 and was observed roosting with the larger and much more common Mariana fruit bat. The last specimen was a female found roosting at Tarague cliff in March 1967, but it escaped capture. An unconfirmed sighting took place sometime during the 1970s, and no other individuals have been sighted since then.
Syzygium is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific. Its highest levels of diversity occur from Malaysia to northeastern Australia, where many species are very poorly known and many more have not been described taxonomically. One indication of this diversity is in leaf size, ranging from as little as a half inch to as great as 4 ft 11 inches by sixteen inches in Syzygium acre of New Caledonia.
The Mariana crow is a species of the crow family from the tropical Western Pacific. It is a glossy black bird about 15 inches (38 cm) long and known only from the islands of Guam and Rota.
Serianthes nelsonii is a large tree endemic to Guam and Rota of the Mariana Islands. Only one mature tree exists on Guam, while 121 mature trees have been identified on Rota since 1984.
The golden white-eye is a species of bird in the white-eye family, Zosteropidae. It is the only species within the genus Cleptornis. The golden white-eye was once considered to be a honeyeater in the family Meliphagidae and although it is now known to be a white-eye, its position within that family is still uncertain. The species is restricted to the islands of Saipan and Aguijan in the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is sympatric and competes with the related bridled white-eye. The golden white-eye has golden plumage and a pale eye-ring. It feeds on insects, fruit, and nectar and forages in pairs or small family groups. The bird is monogamous and lays two eggs in a small cup nest.
The bridled white-eye is a species of white-eye native to the Mariana Islands and formerly Guam. The species' natural habitat is tropical forests, shrublands and urban areas.
Cycas micronesica is a species of cycad found on the island of Yap in Micronesia, the Marianas islands of Guam and Rota, and The Republic of Palau. It is commonly known as federico nut or fadang in Chamorro. The species, previously lumped with Cycas rumphii and Cycas circinalis, was described in 1994 by Ken Hill. Paleoecological studies have determined that C. micronesica has been present on the island of Guam for about 9,000 years. It is linked with Lytico-Bodig disease, a condition similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), due to the neurotoxin BMAA found in its seeds, which were a traditional food source on Guam until the 1960s. The neurotoxin is present due to its symbiosis with cyanobacteria.
Chalan Piao is a village on the southwestern area of Saipan. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. It is bordered on the north by Chalan Kanoa, on the east by As Perdido village and on the south by San Antonio village. To the west is the Pacific Ocean.
Syzygium hemilamprum, commonly known as the broad-leaved lilly pilly, blush satinash, cassowary gum, Eungella gum, and treated as Acmena hemilampra in New South Wales and Queensland, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is native to New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is a rainforest tree with broadly lance-shaped to elliptic leaves, panicles of white flowers and more or less spherical white fruit.
Canarium acutifolium is a species of plant in the family Burseraceae, native to eastern Malesia, Papuasia and Queensland.
Eugenia palumbis is a shrub with edible fruits in the family Myrtaceae. It is endemic to the Mariana Islands, including Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Elaeocarpus joga is a species of tree in the family Elaeocarpaceae. It is native to the Mariana Islands and Palau. It is a moderately-sized tree with blue-coloured, round, 1.5cm diameter fruit and leaves which turn bright red before they senescence.
Gymnosporia thompsonii is a species of plant in the bittersweet family Celastraceae. It is endemic to the Mariana and Caroline Islands, where it grows as a many-stemmed understory shrub or small tree in karst forests. Its wood is used for fuel and its leaves are used medicinally.
The Marianas tropical dry forests is a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests ecoregion on the Marianas Islands in the western Pacific Ocean.
Varanus tsukamotoi, the Mariana monitor or Saipan monitor, is a species of lizard of the Varanidae family. It is endemic to the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, and has been introduced to Japtan in the Marshall Islands.
Melochia villosissima, is a tree endemic to northwest Pacific Ocean islands, including South Iwo Jima and western Micronesian Islands. It is a small pioneer tree often found along roadsides and has a striking appearance due to its clusters of pink flowers.
Callicarpa lamii is a plant in the mint family that is endemic to the Mariana Islands. It is one of two Callicarpa plants endemic to the Mariana Islands, the other being Callicarpa candicans var. paucinervia.
Syzygium puberulum, commonly known as white satinash or downy satinash, is a plant in the family Myrtaceae which is native to rainforests of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, and Papua New Guinea. It was first described in 1942.
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