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Xylosma grossecrenatum

Overview

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Endangered

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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Description

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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 Xylosma

Shrubs or small trees , usually dioecious, rarely polygamous; trunk and branches usually spiny . Leaves alternate, stipulate , usually petiolate ; leaf blade pinnate-veined, margin serrate, rarely entire, teeth glandular . Flowers hypogynous, small, in axillary fascicles, short racemes , or panicles, rudiments of opposite sex usually absent; bracts small, persistent or caducous ; pedicels articulate at base . Sepals 4 or 5, imbricate, free or connate at base only. Petals absent. Disk extrastaminal , or in female flowers extragynoecial, comprised of several small closely set or connate glands (usually in staminate flowers ) or annular (often in pistillate flowers). Staminate flowers: stamens ca. 10 to many, exserted; filaments free, filiform ; anthers small, basifixed , sometimes apiculate by extension of connective . Pistillate flowers: ovary superior, 1-loculed; placentas 2(-6), each with 2 to many ovules; styles 2 or 3(or 4), often very short, joined in lower part only or completely joined to form a single style column, or styles absent; stigmas semilunate to U-shaped. Berry small, ca. 1 cm or less, pericarp thinly leathery, blackish when dried; disk and calyx often persistent at base; styles and/or stigmas persistent at apex. Seeds few.

About 100 species: tropical and subtropical regions, rarely extending to warm-temperate regions; three species in China.

The gender of the name Xylosma is feminine; see Art. 62.2(b ) of the Vienna Code.

In Chinese species: stamens 10-20, filaments glabrous ; ovary glabrous; berry red or black when fresh.

Differentiation between fruiting material of Xylosma controversa and X . longifolia can be difficult when the calyx is absent (caducous) and the critical sepal indumentum character therefore unavailable . Ranges of other character states (e.g. , leaf size, shape , lateral vein number) overlap, and lateral veins are difficult to count in dried material, especially toward the leaf apex. Characters used previously, for example dried leaf color, leaf shininess, leaf base shape, and style length, are not reliable. For some fruiting material examined for the Flora (at K ), identification of X. controversa has been based solely on the absence of the calyx. Further study is required to test the strength of this character and, ideally, provide additional ones.[2]

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [3].

Ecology: This species is endemic to New Caledonian dry forests . Tropical dry forests are probably among the world’s most endangered of all lowland tropical forests. Because of their propensity to become pastures and their susceptibility to fire, dry forests have reduced dramatically, in size as well as in quality. In New Caledonia, they’ve been intensively cut for agricultural purposes for a century; what remains today are highly fragmented patches that have been estimated at 2% of the original area.[3].

List of Habitats :

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Lescot Publication : Fl. N. Caled. & Depend. 9: 108 (1980)

Basionym author: (Sleumer)

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Xylosma

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 11 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

X. buxifolia (Mucha-Gente) · X. congesta (Xylosma) · X. congestum (Shiny Xylosma) · X. crenata (Sawtooth Logwood) · X. flexuosa (Brushholly) · X. hawaiiense (A'e) · X. hawaiiensis (Hawai'i Brushholly) · X. pachyphylla (Spiny Logwood) · X. pachyphyllum (Spiny Logwood) · X. schaefferioides (White Logwood) · X. schwaneckeana (Schwaneck's Logwood)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

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. "Xylosma". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 112, 113, 114, 119, 121. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Hequet, V. 2010. Xylosma grossecrenatum. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 05 February 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 7/21/2012