font settings and languages

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

Ocotea stenoneura

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Lauraceae

Shrubs to tall trees , evergreen or rarely deciduous ( Cassytha a parasitic vine with leaves reduced to scales ), usually aromatic . Leaves alternate, rarely whorled or opposite, simple , without stipules, petiolate . Leaf blade : unlobed (unlobed or lobed in Sassafras ), margins entire, occasionally with domatia (crevices or hollows serving as lodging for mites ) in axils of main lateral veins (in Cinnamomum ) . Inflorescences in axils of leaves or deciduous bracts, panicles (rarely heads ), racemes , compound cymes, or pseudoumbels (spikes in Cassytha ), sometimes enclosed by decussate bracts. Flowers bisexual or unisexual , bisexual only, or staminate and pistillate on different plants , or staminate and bisexual on some plants, pistillate and bisexual on others; flowers usually yellow to greenish or white, rarely reddish; hypanthium well developed, resembling calyx tube , tepals and stamens perigynous; tepals 6(-9), in 2(-3) whorls of 3, sepaloid , equal or rarely unequal, if unequal then usually outer 3 smaller than inner 3 (occasionally absent in Litsea ) ; stamens (3-) 9(-12), in whorls of 3, but 1 or more whorls frequently staminodial or absent; stamens of 3d whorl with 2 glands near base ; anthers 2- or 4-locular, locules opening by valves ; pistil 1, 1-carpellate; ovary 1-locular; placentation basal; ovule 1; stigma subsessile , discoid or capitate. Fruits drupes, drupe borne on pedicel with or without persistent tepals at base, or seated in ± deeply cup-shaped receptacle (cupule), or enclosed in accrescent floral tube . Seed 1; endosperm absent.

Genera ca. 50, species 2000-3000 (9 genera, 13 species in the flora ) : pantropical , a few species also in subtropical and temperate regions

Cassytha is sometimes placed in its own family , Cassythaceae; it is here retained in Lauraceae.[1]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 2,524 meters (0 to 8,281 feet).[2]

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Ocotea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 14 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

O. aciphylla (Moena) · O. floribunda (Laurel Espada) · O. foeniculacea (Black Sweetwood) · O. foetens (Tilo) · O. holdridgeana (Tall-Fin Shrimp-Goby) · O. lancilimba (Bois Cannelle) · O. leucoxylon (Loblolly Sweetwood) · O. moschata (Nemoca) · O. nemodaphne (Laurel Sassafras) · O. portoricensis (Laurel De Paloma) · O. puberula (Cedre Gris) · O. spathulata (Nemoca Cimarrona) · O. usambarensis (East African Camphorwood) · O. wrightii (Wright's Laurel Canelon)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 15, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Henk van der Werff "Lauraceae". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mean = 907.810 meters (2,978.379 feet), Standard Deviation = 604.600 based on 73 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/23/2012