Litsea
Encyclopedia
Litsea is a genus of evergreen
or deciduous
trees or shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae
. The genus includes 200 to 400 species in tropical and subtropical areas of both hemispheres.
and like most of their counterparts laurifolia in the world, they are vigorous species with a great ability to populate the habitat that is conducive. Litsea genus responde to characteristic formations of laurel forest
. The natural habitat is forest or dense bush which are cloud-covered for much of the year. Several species are in danger of extinction due to over exploitation as medicinal plants or timber extraction and also for loss of habitat.
The patterns of speciation indicate that the majority of species is the product of vicariance
. This is due to the current island like archipelagos of rainforests along the planet. The fragmentation of once more continuous rainforest facilitated isolation of populations and this likely caused the increase in the rate of speciation.
It has over 400 species worldwide in the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, 7 in Mexico and 3 in the Valley of Tehuacán-Cuicatlán.
Distribution: Most species are found in Asia (300 species). The rest in Australia and the Pacific Islands and 8 in America. In North America from Mexico, crossing Central America, the southeastern United U.S. to Costa Rica. Northern South America, Australia
, New Zealand
, and Asia
. China
alone has over 70 species, mostly in warm regions of the south and southwest. Litsea merits revision and it is probably polyphyletic.
The leaves
can be either deciduous
or evergreen
depending on species, and aromatic.
The flowers are from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, yellowish. Male and female flowers commonly are on different plants. The pollination
is done by bee
s and other insect
s. The most striking are its fruits. The fruit
is a small red, purple or black drupe
containing a single seed
, dispersed mostly by birds. Some species also reproduce vegetatively by stolons. Some species have strict ecological requirements and resistant habits, that can survive in conditions that are not appropriate, except wet lack, such as lack of light due to competition with other species but occurring too across a gradient of canopy cover including full sun , intermediate shade, and full shade. Most populations have been observed under closed overstory canopies of bottomland forests, and consequently, considered a shade-tolerant species, occurs also along the margin of a seasonally flooded depressional wetland but grow too in herbaceous zone with little canopy cover. The ecological characteristics of Litsea are similar to those of Lindera
and are considered as a parallel evolution in Lauraceae.Litsea is related to Adenodaphne
a New Caledonian genus previously included, and Dodecadenia
.
and many species are adapted to laurel forest
habitat. Lisea is adapted from sea level to more than 2000 meters with high mountain species. Litsea are dioecious
and have mostly smooth, glossy, lauroide type leaves.
Many are evergreen
tree
with some species growing to 25 m tall.
They have leaves alternates to opposite or rarely subverticillate, usually penninerved, rarely triplinerved, (3-ribbed); the inflorescences are consisting in pseudo-umbels (a flat-topped or rounded flower cluster) that are arranged in a racime, sometimes condensed, or a short-shoot or rarely sessile. Each pseudo-umbel with an involucre of decussate, crossed in the form of an X, usually persistent bracts.
Leaves glabrous or pubescent, domatia
absent.
Inflorescences axillary or solitary seudoumbelas along very short sharp branches, appearing racemose, covered before anthesis by an involucre of bracts decussate. rather campanulate, usually tepals 6, similar to one another, rarely unequal slightly extended, never papillose, soon deciduous, the male with 9-12 stamens, filaments well developed, internal glands baseline, anthers 4-sporangia, sporangia in 2 pairs almost vertical those of external whorl introrsas, those of inner whorl or extrorse latrorsas, hypanthium short and flat, vestigial pistilodio present;
The flower is from greenish, yellow to white. Male and female flower
on different plants. The pollination
is done by bee
s and other insect
s.
The flowers are irregular or trimerous. The flowers are unisexuals, male flowers with 5 to 20 fertile stamens. The female with a ovary globose, with 9-12 staminodes, urceolate hypanthium. the flowers could be without petals to nine petals by species. The petals when present are equal or unequal, often caducous during anthesis. In the stamens, several inner ones with glands.
Regularly, in the trimerous flowers there are three trimerous, up to 9 flowers. The third whorl with glands.
Filaments usually longer than the anthers. Anthers are having four locule
s. The pollen sacs arranged mostly in two pairs above each other, all introrse. Lower pollen sacs are latrorse.
The staminodes usually are absent. The tepal
s usually are deciduous. The Pistillo or gynoecium
well developed to absent. Fruits on a light or markedly thickened pedicel, supported by a shallow or deep dome, simple margin. The flower have a flat to deeply cup-shaped receptacle
.The fruit is a drupe of variable shape and size. The most striking are its fruits, sometimes an ovoid berry, plum-like to olive-like drupe settled on a discoid small dome. With shape rounded or ovoid, brown to black, rarely green, purple, reddish, orange or yellow. The fruits are a very important food source for bird
s and other wildlife, like rodents, muntjacs, monkeys and bats. Most seeds pass through the bird's digestive system intact. Seed dispersal
via ingestion by vertebrate animals, mostly birds and mammals, is the dispersal mechanism for most tree species.
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...
or 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...
trees or shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae
Lauraceae
The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...
. The genus includes 200 to 400 species in tropical and subtropical areas of both hemispheres.
Overview
Trees or shrubs, dioecious. The ecological requirements of the genus, are those of the laurel forestLaurel forest
Laurel forest is a subtropical or mild temperate forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterized by tree species with evergreen, glossy, enlongated leaves, known as laurophyll or lauroide...
and like most of their counterparts laurifolia in the world, they are vigorous species with a great ability to populate the habitat that is conducive. Litsea genus responde to characteristic formations of laurel forest
Laurel forest
Laurel forest is a subtropical or mild temperate forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterized by tree species with evergreen, glossy, enlongated leaves, known as laurophyll or lauroide...
. The natural habitat is forest or dense bush which are cloud-covered for much of the year. Several species are in danger of extinction due to over exploitation as medicinal plants or timber extraction and also for loss of habitat.
The patterns of speciation indicate that the majority of species is the product of vicariance
Vicariance
Vicariance is a process by which the geographical range of an individual taxon, or a whole biota, is split into discontinuous parts by the formation of a physical barrier to gene flow or dispersal. Vicariance of whole biotas occurs following large-scale geophysical events such as the uplift of a...
. This is due to the current island like archipelagos of rainforests along the planet. The fragmentation of once more continuous rainforest facilitated isolation of populations and this likely caused the increase in the rate of speciation.
It has over 400 species worldwide in the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, 7 in Mexico and 3 in the Valley of Tehuacán-Cuicatlán.
Distribution: Most species are found in Asia (300 species). The rest in Australia and the Pacific Islands and 8 in America. In North America from Mexico, crossing Central America, the southeastern United U.S. to Costa Rica. Northern South America, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
alone has over 70 species, mostly in warm regions of the south and southwest. Litsea merits revision and it is probably polyphyletic.
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....
can be either 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...
or 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...
depending on species, and aromatic.
The flowers are from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, yellowish. Male and female flowers commonly are on different plants. The pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
is done by bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s and other insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s. The most striking are its fruits. 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 small red, purple or black 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...
, dispersed mostly by birds. Some species also reproduce vegetatively by stolons. Some species have strict ecological requirements and resistant habits, that can survive in conditions that are not appropriate, except wet lack, such as lack of light due to competition with other species but occurring too across a gradient of canopy cover including full sun , intermediate shade, and full shade. Most populations have been observed under closed overstory canopies of bottomland forests, and consequently, considered a shade-tolerant species, occurs also along the margin of a seasonally flooded depressional wetland but grow too in herbaceous zone with little canopy cover. The ecological characteristics of Litsea are similar to those of Lindera
Lindera
Lindera is a genus of about 80-100 species of flowering plants in the family Lauraceae, mostly native to eastern Asia but with three species in eastern North America. The species are shrubs and small trees; common names include Spicewood, Spicebush, and Benjamin Bush.-Overview:They are dioecious,...
and are considered as a parallel evolution in Lauraceae.Litsea is related to Adenodaphne
Adenodaphne
Adenodaphne is a genus of flowering plants, evergreen trees or shrubs belonging to the family Lauraceae, of five species from New Caledonia. They are large trees characteristics of Rainforest in montane laurel forest habitats in New Caledonia and restricted to this region. They belong to an ancient...
a New Caledonian genus previously included, and Dodecadenia
Dodecadenia
Dodecadenia is a botanical genus with at least three species of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It is present from central Asia, to Himalayas and India...
.
Characteristics
The genus includes species of trees, and shrubs, with evergreen foliage and inconspicuous flowers. The genus was more extended in the TertiaryTertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
and many species are adapted to laurel forest
Laurel forest
Laurel forest is a subtropical or mild temperate forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterized by tree species with evergreen, glossy, enlongated leaves, known as laurophyll or lauroide...
habitat. Lisea is adapted from sea level to more than 2000 meters with high mountain species. Litsea are dioecious
Dioecious
Dioecy is the property of a group of biological organisms that have males and females, but not members that have organs of both sexes at the same time. I.e., those whose individual members can usually produce only one type of gamete; each individual organism is thus distinctly female or male...
and have mostly smooth, glossy, lauroide type leaves.
Many 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...
tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
with some species growing to 25 m tall.
They have leaves alternates to opposite or rarely subverticillate, usually penninerved, rarely triplinerved, (3-ribbed); the inflorescences are consisting in pseudo-umbels (a flat-topped or rounded flower cluster) that are arranged in a racime, sometimes condensed, or a short-shoot or rarely sessile. Each pseudo-umbel with an involucre of decussate, crossed in the form of an X, usually persistent bracts.
Leaves glabrous or pubescent, domatia
Domatia
Domatia are tiny chambers produced by plants that house arthropods.Domatia differ from galls in that they are produced by the plant rather than being induced by their inhabitants...
absent.
Inflorescences axillary or solitary seudoumbelas along very short sharp branches, appearing racemose, covered before anthesis by an involucre of bracts decussate. rather campanulate, usually tepals 6, similar to one another, rarely unequal slightly extended, never papillose, soon deciduous, the male with 9-12 stamens, filaments well developed, internal glands baseline, anthers 4-sporangia, sporangia in 2 pairs almost vertical those of external whorl introrsas, those of inner whorl or extrorse latrorsas, hypanthium short and flat, vestigial pistilodio present;
The flower is from greenish, yellow to white. Male and female 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...
on different plants. The pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
is done by bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s and other insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s.
The flowers are irregular or trimerous. The flowers are unisexuals, male flowers with 5 to 20 fertile stamens. The female with a ovary globose, with 9-12 staminodes, urceolate hypanthium. the flowers could be without petals to nine petals by species. The petals when present are equal or unequal, often caducous during anthesis. In the stamens, several inner ones with glands.
Regularly, in the trimerous flowers there are three trimerous, up to 9 flowers. The third whorl with glands.
Filaments usually longer than the anthers. Anthers are having four locule
Locule
A locule is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism ....
s. The pollen sacs arranged mostly in two pairs above each other, all introrse. Lower pollen sacs are latrorse.
The staminodes usually are absent. The tepal
Tepal
Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...
s usually are deciduous. The Pistillo or gynoecium
Gynoecium
Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for all carpels in a flower. A carpel is the ovule and seed producing reproductive organ in flowering plants. Carpels are derived from ovule-bearing leaves which evolved to form a closed structure containing the ovules...
well developed to absent. Fruits on a light or markedly thickened pedicel, supported by a shallow or deep dome, simple margin. The flower have a flat to deeply cup-shaped receptacle
Receptacle
-Angiosperms:In botany, the receptacle is the thickened part of a stem from which the flower organs grow. In some accessory fruits, for example the pome and strawberry, the receptacle gives rise to the edible part of the fruit....
.The fruit is a drupe of variable shape and size. The most striking are its fruits, sometimes an ovoid berry, plum-like to olive-like drupe settled on a discoid small dome. With shape rounded or ovoid, brown to black, rarely green, purple, reddish, orange or yellow. The fruits are a very important food source for bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s and other wildlife, like rodents, muntjacs, monkeys and bats. Most seeds pass through the bird's digestive system intact. Seed dispersal
Seed dispersal
Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant...
via ingestion by vertebrate animals, mostly birds and mammals, is the dispersal mechanism for most tree species.
Selected species
- L. bindonianaLitsea bindonianaLitsea bindoniana, known as the Big-leaved Bollywood is a rainforest tree in the laurel family. A small to medium sized bushy tree endemic to the rainforests of tropical Queensland, Australia. It features large leaves with attractive yellow venation, 25 cm long by 10 cm wide. They are dark green...
, an Australian rainforestRainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
tree. - L. calicaris, Mangeao, New Zealand, a tree reaching 15 m in height with smooth dark greyish brown bark. Opposite leaves, 50-150 mm long, ovate or ovate-oblong, bluish-green below. Flowers small, in umbels of 4-5, drupe oblong-ovoid, 2 mm long, reddish and seated on a disc.
- L. cubebaLitsea cubebaMay Chang is an evergreen tree or shrub 5-12 meters high in the Lauraceae family. It is native to China, Indonesia, Taiwan and other parts of Southeast Asia. It is called "mountain pepper" in Mandarin and maqaw by the Atayal aborigines in Taiwan...
, evergreen shrub or small tree with lemon-scented leaves and small, pepper-like fruit. The wood is used for furniture, construction,and lumber. The flowers, leaves and fruit are used as medicine and for extracting an essential oilEssential oilAn essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...
(also called May Chang) used in perfumePerfumePerfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
ry. - L. glaucescensLitsea glaucescensLitsea glaucescens, laurel silvestre, is an evergreen tree or shrub high in the genus Litsea belonging to Lauraceae family. It is native from southern North America, mostly in Mexico. Distributed by Mexico and Central America....
, is commonly called Mexican bay and is used medicinally and as a condiment. - L. glutinosa, an AsianAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
rainforestRainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
tree. Commonly called Lauat or Lawat in the PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. - L. ichangensis, forms part of the summer diet for Rhinopithicus roxellana.
- L. reticulataLitsea reticulataLitsea reticulata is a common Australian tree, growing from near Milton, New South Wales to the Bunya Mountains, Queensland. Common names include Bollygum, Bolly Wood and Brown Beech...
, an Australian rainforestRainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
tree. - Litsea guatemalensis
- Litsea annamensis
- Litsea baviensis
- Litsea calicaris
- Litsea lancilimba
- Litsea longipes
- Litsea polyantha :Litsea monopetala)
- Litsea vang