Overview
Shrubs or trees, evergreen. Leaves alternate but often clustered apically on br anchlets, petiolate; leaf blade leathery, pinnately veined, margin entire or serrate. Flowers axillary, solitary or in a short raceme. Pedicel short; bracteoles 2-7, caducous. Sepals 5, caducous after anthesis. Petals 5(or 6), basally ± connate. Stamens numerous; outer filament whorl adnate to petals; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary placentation axile. Capsule oblong-cylindric or cylindric, 5(or 6-8) -loculed, loculicidal; columella persistent to apex of locules. Seeds flat, apically with an oblong membranous wing; endosperm thin.
About 40 species: E and SE Asia; six species (two endemic) in China.
Molecular evidence has shown that Polyspora is not closely related to Gordonia J. Ellis, which is now considered to be strictly a New World genus (Prince & Parks, Amer. J. Bot. 88: 2309-2320. 2001; Yang et al., Pl. Syst. Evol. 248: 45-55. 2004).[1]
Taxonomy
The Genus Polyspora is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 19 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in the Genus Polyspora: P. acuminata · P. axilaris f. tonkinensii · P. axillaris · P. axillaris var. nantoensis · P. axillaris var. tagawae · P. balansae · P. chrysandra · P. europaea · P. hainanensis · P. kwangsiensis · P. lessertii · P. lini · P. longicarpa · P. shimadae · P. speciosa · P. tagawae · P. tiantangensis · P. tonkinensis · P. yunnanensis
Bibliography
- Chang Hungta & Ren Shanxiang. 1998. Theaceae (Theoideae). In: Chang Hungta, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 49(3): ii-xiii, 1-281
- Ling Laikuan. 1998. Theaceae (Ternstroemioideae). Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 50(1): ii-vi, 1-213.
Footnotes
- "Polyspora". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 366, 418. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
Sources
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