font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Casearia arguta

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Salicaceae

Trees or shrubs , deciduous or rarely evergreen , dioecious, rarely polygamous. Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite, usually petiolate , simple ; stipules persistent or caducous . Catkins erect or pendulous; each flower usually with a cupular disc or 1 or 2(or 3) nectariferous glands . Male flowers with 2-many stamens; filaments filiform , free or united ; to connate ; anthers 2(or 4) -loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers with 1 pistil, sessile or stipitate ; ovary superior, 1- or 2-loculed; ovules several to many, anatropous , with a 1 integument; style 1, 2 in Chosenia; stigmas 2-4. Capsule dehiscing by 2-4(or 5) valves ; placenta and inside wall of ovary with long hairs . Seeds 4-numerous, glabrous ; hairs and seeds simultaneously deciduous when capsule matures.

Three genera and about 620 species: mainly N hemisphere, a few in S hemisphere; three genera and 347 species (236 endemic) in China, including at least nine hybrids and at least one introduced species .[1]

Genus Casearia

Shrubs or small trees . Leaves alternate, usually petiolate ; stipules usually small, caducous , rarely larger and/or persistent ; leaf blade usually pinnate-veined, sometimes 3-veined from base , often with pellucid glandular dots and lines throughout (view at 10 × against light), margin entire or toothed . Flowers perigynous, bisexual , small, usually clustered in axillary , few- to many flowered, sessile or shortly pedunculate fascicles, rarely solitary or in small cymes; bracts papery or scalelike, generally ovate , small, congested at fascicle base to form a persistent cushion; pedicels usually present, articulate , rarely flowers practically sessile. Sepals 4 or 5, imbricate, joined in basal part to form a shallow or deeper cup , free above, cup never adnate to ovary. Petals absent. Disk cuplike, adnate to inside of calyx tube , free from ovary, rim lobed ; lobes triangular, oblong , or clavate , usually hairy , either in same row as and alternating with stamens, or in an intrastaminal row. Stamens (6-) 8-10(-12) ; filaments inserted on rim of disk cup. Ovary superior, 1-loculed; placentas 2-4, each with several ovules; style 1, entire or distally 3-branched, sometimes very short; stigma capitate, 3-lobed when style is entire. Capsule fleshy to leathery, globose , ellipsoid or 3-angled when fresh, mostly 6-ribbed when dry, (2 or) 3(or 4) -valvate, dehisced valves often naviculate; sepals, stamen filaments, disk, and disk lobes generally persistent at capsule base, style remnant often persistent at apex. Seeds several, ovoid or obovoid , arillate , aril completely covering seed, membranous or fleshy, often brightly colored , soft, partly fimbriate.

About 180 species: tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, North and South America, and the Pacific islands; seven species in China.

In Chinese species: flowers in axillary glomerules; disk lobes in same row as stamens; style entire; capsule fleshy.

More gatherings are needed for the genus from China, Myanmar, India, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, from which more accurate, detailed, and standardized descriptions and keys can be drawn . Chinese material of Casearia kurzii, C. tardieuae, and C. velutina seems particularly scarce. Between some species, the flowers and fruit offer few diagnostic characters. The following key is tentative.[2]

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Notes

Publishing author : Kunth Publication : Nov. Gen. Sp. [H.B.K.] v. 363

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Casearia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 9 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. aculeata (Rabo De Ranton) · C. arborea (Gia Verde) · C. decandra (Wild Honeytree) · C. guianensis (Guyanese Wild Coffee) · C. silvestris (Crackopen) · C. sylvestris (Crackopen) · C. sylvestris var. lingua (Wild-Sage) · C. sylvestris var. sylvestris (Wild-Sage) · C. sylvestris subsp. myricoides (Wild-Sage)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 03, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Cheng-fu Fang, Shi-dong Zhao & Alexei K. Skvortsov "Salicaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 139. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Casearia". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 113, 114, 133. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/21/2012