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Aiouea obscura

Overview

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Endangered
Threat status

Description

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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

Ecology: On steep slopes of evergreen lowland rainforest.[2]

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Aiouea obscura van der Werff, 1988

Notes

Publishing author : H.van der Werff Publication : Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75(2): 402 (1988) 1988

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Aiouea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 60 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. acamdomatifera · A. acarodomatifera · A. angulata · A. benthamiana · A. bracteata · A. brasiliensis · A. burchelliana · A. chapadaensis · A. costaricensis · A. demerarensis · A. densiflora · A. dubia · A. elliptica · A. farinosa · A. gaudichaudii · A. goyazensis · A. grandifolia · A. guatemalensis · A. guianensis · A. guyanensis · A. hassleri · A. hirtella · A. impressa · A. inconspicua · A. inconspicua der · A. jelskii · A. laevis · A. lehmannii · A. longipetiolata · A. lundelliana · A. lutzelburgii · A. macedoana · A. maguireana · A. marginata · A. meissneri · A. minutiflora · A. mocambensis · A. multiflora · A. myristicoides · A. obscura · A. opaca · A. parvissima · A. pernitida · A. perrobusta · A. piauhyensis · A. pruinosa · A. riedelii · A. rondoni · A. rubra · A. saligna · A. scandens · A. schomburgkii · A. schwackeana · A. tenella · A. tenuiflora · A. tomentella · A. trinervis · A. truxillensis · A. vexatrix · A. warmingii

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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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. World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 19, 2008. [back]
Last Revised: 2009-07-03