Rhodostemonodaphne is a genus of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 in 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...

. Rhodostemonodaphne is a neotropical genus consisting of approximately 41 species occurring mostly in the norther South America and Amazon region.

Overview

Rhodostemonodaphne is a neotropical botanical genus of lauroide shrubs and trees of 30 m tall, mostly hardwood evergreen trees belonging to the 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 comprises 41 species of dioecious Lauraceae with stamens bearing four locelli situated in a shallow arch towards the apex of the anthers.
Rhodostemonodaphne is a genus of 40 species distributed from Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

 to southern Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Surinam, French Guiana, Amapá (northeastern Brazil), and Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

. It is genus of the Ocotea

Ocotea

Ocotea is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. The genus includes over 200 species of evergreen trees and shrubs, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, the West Indies, also with a few species in Africa and Madagascar, and...

 complex. DNA molecular data showing that its members are nested within Endlicheria

Endlicheria

Endlicheria is a genus of plant in family Lauraceae. Endlicheria is a neotropical genus consisting of approximately 60 species occurring mostly in the norther South America and Amazon region.-Overview:...

 and Ocotea

Ocotea

Ocotea is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. The genus includes over 200 species of evergreen trees and shrubs, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, the West Indies, also with a few species in Africa and Madagascar, and...

 clade forming three genera closely related genera. Two Endlicheria species are transferred to Rhodostemonodaphne. Representatives of Endlicheria in eight species groups are united with a diverse representation of Rhodostemonodaphne in a well-supported but unresolved clade. The Endlicheria-Rhodostemonodaphne relation is manifested. It is suggested that the two-locellate anthers that distinguish Endlicheria from Rhodostemonodaphne evolved repeatedly.
Rhodostemonodaphne, with four-locellate anthers was classified with Nectandra

Nectandra

Nectandra is a genus of plant in family Lauraceae.-Overview:Plants from this genus have been used in the treatment of several clinical disorders in humans. It has been demonstrated that Nectandra plants have potential analgesic, antiinflammatory, febrifuge, energetic and hypotensive activities...

, but form a monophylogenetic genus close to Endlicheria. The two genera form a group of approximately 100 known species.
Flowers are male or female in distinct trees. They are dioceous. Small flowers in panicles with racemose endings, when present small dome over the fruit and single border.
They 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...

 Lauraceae trees or shrubs with leaves alternate, elliptics with recurvated margins.. The leaves with acute base and apex, chartaceous.
The inflorescence are panicle with racemose terminations.
Androecium with three stamens fertile, often red stamens, thinner fillets or undifferentiated anthers, anthers four locelares.
Fruit is a berry dark or black, which is an important food source for birds, usually this birds are from specialized genus: Cotingidae, Columbidae, Rhamphastidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, etc. Birds eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, expanding the seeds in the best conditions for germination (ornitochory

Biological dispersal

Biological dispersal refers to species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population...

). In some species the 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...

 is carried out by monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

s, chipmunk

Chipmunk

Chipmunks are small striped squirrels native to North America and Asia. They are usually classed either as a single genus with three subgenera, or as three genera.-Etymology and taxonomy:...

s, porcupine

Porcupine

Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend or camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa. Porcupines are the third largest of the rodents, behind the capybara and the beaver. Most porcupines are about long, with...

s, Opossums or fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

es.

This genus have many high commercial value plant species were supplied by wood industry.

Species selected

• Rhodostemonodaphne anomala
• Rhodostemonodaphne antioquiensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne avilensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne capixabensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne celiana
• Rhodostemonodaphne crenaticupula
• Rhodostemonodaphne curicuriariensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne cyclops
• Rhodostemonodaphne debilis
• Rhodostemonodaphne dioica
• Rhodostemonodaphne elephantopus
• Rhodostemonodaphne frontinensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne grandis
• Rhodostemonodaphne juruensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne kunthiana
• Rhodostemonodaphne laxa
• Rhodostemonodaphne leptoclada
• Rhodostemonodaphne licanioides
• Rhodostemonodaphne longiflora
• Rhodostemonodaphne longipetiolata
• Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx
• Rhodostemonodaphne miranda
• Rhodostemonodaphne mirecolorata
• Rhodostemonodaphne morii
• Rhodostemonodaphne napoensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne negrensis
• Rhodostemonodaphne ovatifolia
• Rhodostemonodaphne parvifolia
• Rhodostemonodaphne penduliflora
• Rhodostemonodaphne peneia
• Rhodostemonodaphne praeclara
• Rhodostemonodaphne recurva
• Rhodostemonodaphne revolutifolia
• Rhodostemonodaphne rufovirgata
• Rhodostemonodaphne saülensis