Chionanthus
Encyclopedia
Chionanthus is a genus
of about 80 species of flowering plant
s in the family
Oleaceae
.
The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with two species extending north into temperate regions, one (C. retusus) in eastern Asia and one (C. virginicus) in eastern North America. Most of the tropical species are evergreen
, while the two temperate species are deciduous
; some botanists restrict Chionanthus to the two deciduous, temperate species, treating the evergreen species in a separate genus Linociera, but apart from leaf persistence, there is no other consistent difference between them.
They are shrub
s and small to medium-sized trees growing to 3–25 m tall. The leaves
are opposite, simple. The flower
s are produced in feathery panicle
s, with a corolla subdivided into four slender lobes; they are white, pale yellow, or tinged pink. The fruit
is a drupe
containing a single seed
.
Selected species:
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of about 80 species of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Oleaceae
Oleaceae
Oleaceae are a family containing 24 extant genera and around 600 species of mesophytic shrubs, trees and occasionally vines. As shrubs, members of this family may be twine climbers, or scramblers.-Leaves:...
.
The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with two species extending north into temperate regions, one (C. retusus) in eastern Asia and one (C. virginicus) in eastern North America. Most of the tropical species are evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
, while the two temperate species are deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
; some botanists restrict Chionanthus to the two deciduous, temperate species, treating the evergreen species in a separate genus Linociera, but apart from leaf persistence, there is no other consistent difference between them.
They are shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s and small to medium-sized trees growing to 3–25 m tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are opposite, simple. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are produced in feathery panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
s, with a corolla subdivided into four slender lobes; they are white, pale yellow, or tinged pink. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is a drupe
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...
containing a single seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
.
Selected species:
- Chionanthus albidiflorusChionanthus albidiflorusChionanthus albidiflorus is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka....
Thwaites. Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. - Chionanthus axillaris R.Br. Australia (QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
). - Chionanthus axilliflorus (Griseb.) Stearn. Caribbean.
- Chionanthus brachythyrsus (Merrill) P.S.Green. Southern China (HainanHainanHainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
), VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. - Chionanhus broomeana (Horner ex Oliver) A.J.Scott. RéunionRéunionRéunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
- Chionanthus caudatus (Collett & Hemsley) Bahadur & Gaur. MyanmarMyanmarBurma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
. - Chionanthus compactus Sw. Caribbean.
- Chionanthus domingensis Lam. Caribbean.
- Chionanthus foveolatusChionanthus foveolatusChionanthus foveolatus is a medium-sized, evergreen, Afromontane tree that is indigenous to South Africa....
(E.Mey.) Stearn (Pock Ironwood). Southern Africa. - Chionanthus guangxiensis B.M.Miao. Southeastern China (GuangxiGuangxiGuangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
). - Chionanthus hainanensis (Merrill & Chun) B.M.Miao. Southern China (HainanHainanHainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
). - Chionanthus henryanus P.S.Green. Southwestern China, Myanmar.
- Chionanthus holdridgei (Camp & Monachino) Stearn. Caribbean.
- Chionanthus intermedius (Wight) F.Muell. India.
- Chionanthus ligustrinus (Sw.) Pers. Caribbean.
- Chionanthus longiflorus (H.L.Li) B.M.Miao. Southwestern China (Yunnan).
- Chionanthus picrophloia F.Muell. Australia (Queensland).
- Chionanthus pubescens Kunth. EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. - Chionanthus pygmaeusChionanthus pygmaeusChionanthus pygmaeus is a rare species of flowering plant in the olive family known by the common name pygmy fringetree. It is endemic to Florida, where there are 46 known occurrences as of 2010. The plant is found in increasingly rare habitat in Central Florida that is being consumed for...
Small (Pygmy Fringetree). Southeastern United States (FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
). - Chionanthus quadristamineus F.Muell. Australia (Norfolk IslandNorfolk IslandNorfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
). - Chionanthus ramiflorusChionanthus ramiflorusChionanthus ramiflorus is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae. It is native to northeastern Australia , New Guinea, India, Nepal, the Philippines, southern China, and Taiwan....
Roxburgh. Australia (Queensland), southern China, India, NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, Vietnam. - Chionanthus retususChionanthus retususChionanthus retusus is a species of Chionanthus native to eastern Asia, in eastern and central China, Korea, and Japan....
Lindley & Paxton (Chinese Fringetree). China, Japan, KoreaKoreaKorea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. - Chionanthus sleumeri (C.T.White) Stearn. Australia (Queensland).
- Chionanthus virginicusChionanthus virginicusChionanthus virginicus is a tree native to the eastern United States, from New Jersey south to Florida, and west to Oklahoma and Texas. -Growth:...
L. (White Fringetree). Eastern United States.