# Aspidostemon > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Aspidostemon > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Aspidostemon.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidostemon > Source revision: 1178652621 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}} {{automatic taxobox |image = |image_caption = |taxon = Aspidostemon |authority = [Rohwer](/source/Jens_Gunter_Rohwer) & [H.G.Richt.](/source/Hans_Georg_Richter) |subdivision_ranks = Species |subdivision = See text |synonyms = *''Cryptocarya subgen. Hexanthera'' [Kosterm.](/source/Kosterm.) *''Cryptocarya subgen. Trianthera'' Kosterm. }} '''''Aspidostemon''''' is a [genus](/source/genus) of [flowering plant](/source/flowering_plant)s belonging to the family [Lauraceae](/source/Lauraceae). It occurs in [Madagascar](/source/Madagascar).{{cite web|url=http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40036592 |accessdate=4 August 2010 |format= |work= Tropicos.org |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden|title=''Aspidostemon'' Rohwer & H.G. Richt.}} ==Taxonomy== The genus was described by [Jens Gunter Rohwer](/source/Jens_Gunter_Rohwer) & [Hans Georg Richter](/source/Hans_Georg_Richter) in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie'' 109 (1): 74 in 1987. The [type species](/source/type_species) is ''[Aspidostemon perrieri](/source/Aspidostemon_perrieri)'' ([Danguy](/source/Paul_Auguste_Danguy)) Rohwer. The number of collections available is not large.{{cite web|url=http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/front/medias/publication/8185_a06n1a1.pdf |title=Van der Werff H. 2006. — A revision of the Malagasy endemic genus ''Aspidostemon'' Rohwer & Richter (Lauraceae). Adansonia, sér. 3, 28 (1) : 7-44. |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110808034921/http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/front/medias/publication/8185_a06n1a1.pdf |archivedate=2011-08-08 }} The identification was done at the Missouri Botanical Garden. ==Description== They are shrubs or [tree](/source/tree)s up to 25 m high, [hermaphrodite](/source/hermaphrodite)s. The leaves are entire, elliptical or narrowly elliptical. The fruit is a berry-like drupe dispersed mostly by birds. ''Aspidostemon'' species are no exception among the Lauraceae; they are trees with small flowers, hard to detect and collect and often overlooked or ignored when plants easier to collect or with showier flowers are at hand. ''Aspidostemon'' is characterized by its opposite leaves, flowers with three or six stamens (compared to 9 in ''Cryptocarya''), and a fruit which is completely enclosed in the enlarged hypanthium with persistent floral parts attached to the top of the fruit. When the genus was described by Rohwer & Richter in 1987, they recognized 11 species, but today 28 species are accepted.{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} Some species are endangered or almost extinct. Based on a combination of wood anatomical, vegetative, and floral characters, noted by such earlier botanists as Kostermans in 1957, the species of genus ''Aspidostemon'' were placed formerly as belonging to subgenera ''[Hexanthera](/source/Hexanthera)'' and ''[Trianthera](/source/Trianthera)'' of'' [Cryptocarya](/source/Cryptocarya)''. ==Ecology== ''Aspidostemon'' species have the large trees characteristic of rainforest in [montane](/source/montane) [laurel forest](/source/laurel_forest) [habitat](/source/habitat)s in [Madagascar](/source/Madagascar) and nearby islands and restricted to this region. They belong to an ancient isolated [Gondwanian](/source/Gondwanian) element of [Laurales](/source/Laurales). A great number of species are in danger of extinction due to [overexploitation](/source/overexploitation) as [timber extraction](/source/timber_extraction) and [loss of habitat](/source/loss_of_habitat). They are leafy canopy trees with erect or spreading branches. They grow to heights of up to 25 m, or some species to 40 m. Their stout [trunk](/source/Trunk_(botany))s are up to 1 m in diameter. The genus is easily recognizable by its bark which is soft and cheese-like. The thick, leathery leaves are dark green. The leaves are glossy [laurel type](/source/lauroide). The leaves of ''Aspidostemon'' species are not infrequently acuminate, with an acumen folded into a short tube. On opening a few of these inrolled apices, egg cases similar to those found in leaf domatia are found; epiphyllous hepatics were also found. These inrolled apices apparently function as domatia and shelter mites that clean the leaves. The fruit is an important food source for birds, usually from specialized genera. Birds eat the whole fruit and regurgitate or defecate the seeds intact, expanding the seeds in the best conditions for germination ([ornithochory](/source/Biological_dispersal)). In some species, [seed dispersal](/source/seed_dispersal) is carried out by [mammal](/source/mammal)s. ==Accepted species== 29 species are currently accepted:[https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:925067-1 ''Aspidostemon'' Rohwer & H.G.Richt.]. ''Plants of the World Online'', Kew Science. Accessed 28 August 2022. *''[Aspidostemon andohahelensis](/source/Aspidostemon_andohahelensis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon antongilensis](/source/Aspidostemon_antongilensis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon apiculatus](/source/Aspidostemon_apiculatus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon capuronii](/source/Aspidostemon_capuronii)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon caudatus](/source/Aspidostemon_caudatus)'' Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon conoideus](/source/Aspidostemon_conoideus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon dolichocarpus](/source/Aspidostemon_dolichocarpus)'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon fungiformis](/source/Aspidostemon_fungiformis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon glandulosus](/source/Aspidostemon_glandulosus)'' Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon grayi](/source/Aspidostemon_grayi)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon humbertianus](/source/Aspidostemon_humbertianus)'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon inconspicuus](/source/Aspidostemon_inconspicuus)'' Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon insignis](/source/Aspidostemon_insignis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon lacrimans](/source/Aspidostemon_lacrimans)'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon litoralis](/source/Aspidostemon_litoralis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon longipedicellatus](/source/Aspidostemon_longipedicellatus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon lucens](/source/Aspidostemon_lucens)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon macrophyllus](/source/Aspidostemon_macrophyllus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon manongarivensis](/source/Aspidostemon_manongarivensis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon masoalensis](/source/Aspidostemon_masoalensis)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon microphyllus](/source/Aspidostemon_microphyllus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon occultus](/source/Aspidostemon_occultus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon parvifolius](/source/Aspidostemon_parvifolius)'' (Scott Elliot) van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon percoriaceus](/source/Aspidostemon_percoriaceus)'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon perrieri](/source/Aspidostemon_perrieri)'' (Danguy) Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon reticulatus](/source/Aspidostemon_reticulatus)'' van der Werff *''[Aspidostemon synandra](/source/Aspidostemon_synandra)'' Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon trianthera](/source/Aspidostemon_trianthera)'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *''[Aspidostemon trichandra](/source/Aspidostemon_trichandra)'' van der Werff ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q4808044}} Category:Aspidostemon Category:Lauraceae genera Category:Endemic flora of Madagascar --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Aspidostemon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidostemon) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidostemon?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.