Comptonia (plant)

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Comptonia
Comptonia-peregrina-foliage.jpg
Comptonia peregrina leaves
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Myricaceae
Genus: Comptonia
L'Hér. [1]
Species [1] [2]
Comptonia columbiana, 49.5 mya, Klondike Mountain Formation Comptonia columbiana SRIC SR 05-09-01 img1.jpg
Comptonia columbiana , 49.5 mya, Klondike Mountain Formation

Comptonia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of eastern North America. It has one extant (living) species, Comptonia peregrina , [1] and a number of extinct species. [2]

Taxonomy

The living species was first described, as Liquidambar peregrina, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, in the second volume of Species Plantarum . Further on in the same volume, he described Myrica aspleniifolia as a different species (with the epithet spelt asplenifolia). In 1763, he changed his mind concerning Myrica aspleniifolia, and it became Liquidambar aspleniifolia, and so in the same genus as Liquidambar peregrina. [3]

In 1789, Charles Louis L'Héritier placed Linnaeus's original Myrica aspleniifolia in his new genus Comptonia. [4] The genus is named in honor of Rev. Henry Compton (1632-1713), bishop of Oxford.

In 1894, John M. Coulter transferred Linnaeus's Liquidambar peregrina to Comptonia, and treated Linnaeus's Myrica aspleniifolia as a synonym. [3] Comptonia peregrina is now the only extant (living) species in the genus. [1]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fagales</span> Order of flowering plants

The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches. They belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The families and genera currently included are as follows:

Genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binomial nomenclature</span> System of identifying species of organisms using a two-part name

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

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<i>Liquidambar styraciflua</i> Tree species

American sweetgum, also known as American storax, hazel pine, bilsted, redgum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, alligatorwood, or simply sweetgum, is a deciduous tree in the genus Liquidambar native to warm temperate areas of eastern North America and tropical montane regions of Mexico and Central America. Sweetgum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the southeastern United States, and is a popular ornamental tree in temperate climates. It is recognizable by the combination of its five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its hard, spiked fruits. It is currently classified in the plant family Altingiaceae, but was formerly considered a member of the Hamamelidaceae.

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<i>Myrica gale</i> Species of flowering plant (bog-myrtle)

Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of Japan, North Korea, Russia, mainland Europe, the British Isles and parts of northern North America, in Canada and the United States. Common names include bog-myrtle, sweet willow, Dutch myrtle, and sweetgale.

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<i>Myrica</i> Genus of flowering plants

Myrica is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, and missing only from Australia. Some botanists split the genus into two genera on the basis of the catkin and fruit structure, restricting Myrica to a few species, and treating the others in Morella.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myricaceae</span> Genus of shrubs

The Myricaceae are a small family of dicotyledonous shrubs and small trees in the order Fagales. There are three genera in the family, although some botanists separate many species from Myrica into a fourth genus Morella. About 55 species are usually accepted in Myrica, one in Canacomyrica, and one in Comptonia.

<i>Comptonia peregrina</i> Species of plant native to eastern North America

Comptonia peregrina is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae native to eastern North America. It is the only extant (living) species in the genus Comptonia, although a number of extinct species are placed in the genus.

<i>Myrica rubra</i> Species of tree

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The setaceous Hebrew character is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found in the Palearctic realm. It is a common species throughout Europe and North Asia and Central Asia, South Asia, China, Japan and Korea. It is also found in North America, from coast to coast across Canada and the northern United States to western Alaska. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains from Montana to southern Arizona and New Mexico. In the east, it ranges from Maine to North Carolina. It has recently been recorded in Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altingiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales

Altingiaceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales, consisting of wind-pollinated trees that produce hard, woody fruits containing numerous seeds. The fruits have been studied in considerable detail. They naturally occur in Central America, Mexico, eastern North America, the eastern Mediterranean, China, and tropical Asia. They are often cultivated as ornamentals and many produce valuable wood.

<i>Coleophora serratella</i> Species of moth

Coleophora serratella is a moth of the family Coleophoridae. It is found in Europe, Japan (Hokkaido) and North America.

<i>Acrostichum</i> Genus of ferns

Acrostichum is a fern genus in the Parkerioideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae. It was one of the original pteridophyte genera delineated by Linnaeus. It was originally drawn very broadly, including all ferns that had sori apparently "acrostichoid", or distributed in a uniform mass across the back of the frond, rather than organized in discrete sori. This led Linnaeus to include such species as Asplenium platyneuron in the genus, because the specimen he received had sori so crowded that it appeared acrostichoid.

<i>Hemionitis</i> Genus of ferns

Hemionitis is a genus of ferns in the subfamily Cheilanthoideae of the family Pteridaceae. Its circumscription varies greatly in different systems of fern classification. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, it was one of more than 20 genera in the subfamily Cheilanthoideae, and was said to have five species. Other sources treat it as the only genus in the subfamily, and so accept about 450 species. With the restricted circumscription, species are native to tropical America.

<i>Comptonia columbiana</i> Extinct species of sweet fern

Comptonia columbiana is an extinct species of sweet fern in the flowering plant family Myricaceae. The species is known from fossil leaves found in the early Eocene deposits of central to southern British Columbia, Canada, plus northern Washington state, United States, and, tentatively, the late Eocene of Southern Idaho and Earliest Oligocene of Oregon, United States.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Comptonia L'Hér.", Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2019-07-18
  2. 1 2 Xiao-Qing, Liang; Wilde, Volker; Ferguson, David K.; Kvaček, Zlatko; Ablaev, Albert G.; Wang, Yu-Fei & Li, Cheng-Sen (2010), "Comptonia naumannii (Myricaceae) from the early Miocene of Weichang, China, and the palaeobiogeographical implication of the genus", Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 163 (1–2): 52–63, doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2010.09.004
  3. 1 2 Coulter, John M. (1894). "Myricaceae". Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club. Vol. 5. pp. 127–128. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  4. "Comptonia aspleniifolia (L.) L'Hér". The International Plant Names Index . Retrieved 2019-07-19.