{{Short description|Genus of plants}} {{Speciesbox | image = | image_caption = | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name = iucn>{{cite iucn |author=de Kok, R. |year=2021 |title=''Potoxylon melagangai'' |volume=2021 |article-number=e.T178345671A178345691 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T178345671A178345691.en |access-date=10 April 2023}}</ref> | genus = Potoxylon | parent_authority = Kosterm. | species = melagangai | authority = (Symington) Kosterm. | synonyms_ref = <ref name=POWO>{{cite web |url=http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:468578-1 |title=''Potoxylon melagangai'' (Symington) Kosterm. |date=2023 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|access-date=28 February 2023}}</ref> | synonyms = ''Eusideroxylon melagangai'' <small>Symington</small> }} '''''Potoxylon''''' is a monotypic genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. Its only species, '''''Potoxylon melagangai''''',<ref name = Trop>{{cite web |url=http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40037159?tab=subordinatetaxa |title= ''Potoxylon'' Kosterm.|access-date= 17 November 2011 |work= Tropicos.org. |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden}}</ref> is endemic to Borneo.
==Description== ''Potoxylon melagangai'' is an evergreen tree which grows up to 25 metres tall.<ref name = iucn/> It has gray bark. Leaves are alternate, simple, leathery, with entire margins and pinnate venation. The inflorescences are grouped in axillary spikes. The flowers are bisexual and actinomorphic with six tepals in two whorls, 9 stamens in three whorls, the ovary superior and unilocular. The fruit, a berry-like drupe, is ellipsoid and dispersed by birds.{{cn|date=February 2025}}
==Range and habitat== ''Potoxylon melagangai'' is endemic to Borneo, where it is known from western Sabah and northern Sarawak (Malaysia), Brunei, and East Kalimantan (Indonesia).<ref name = iucn/>
It grows in lowland rain forests from 400 to 625 metres elevation.<ref name =iucn/>
==Evolutionary history== Phylogenetic analysis shows that ''Potoxylon'' diverged early from other Lauraceae.<ref name=Chanderbali>http://www.umsl.edu/~renners/Chanderbali_et_alAMBG2001.pdf Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of Lauraceae: Evidence from the Chloroplast and Nuclear Genomes, Andre S. Chanderbali, Henk van der Werff and Susanne S. Renner, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Winter, 2001), pp. 104-134</ref> ''Potoxylon'', like the related genus ''Eusideroxylon'', has an evolutionary history that is difficult to resolve because of the complex geological history of its native range, which has components from both the Gondwanan and Laurasian supercontinents, and consequently it is unclear whether ''Potoxylon'' evolved on Gondwana.{{cn|date=February 2025}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from1=Q5227974|from2=Q18083885}}
Category:Lauraceae Category:Lauraceae genera Category:Monotypic Laurales genera Category:Flora of the Borneo lowland rain forests Category:Lauraceae of Borneo Category:Endemic flora of Borneo Category:Least concern flora of Asia Category:Plants described in 1978 Category:Taxa named by André Joseph Guillaume Henri Kostermans