Visnea

{{Short description|Monotypic genus of flowering plants}} {{Speciesbox |image = Visnea mocanera.jpg |image_caption = ''Visnea mocanera'' |status = LC|status_system = IUCN3.1 |status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 15 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=da Silva Menezes de Sequeira, M.P. |author2=Fernandes, F. |author3=Beech, E. |date=2017 |title=''Visnea mocanera'' |volume=2017 |article-number=e.T30338A102000773 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T30338A102000773.en |access-date=15 November 2021}}</ref> |genus = Visnea |parent_authority = L.f. (1782) |species = mocanera |authority = L.f. (1782) |synonyms = *''Mocanera'' {{small|Juss. (1789)}} *''Mocanera canariensis'' {{small|J.St.-Hil. (1805)}} *''Visnea canariensis'' {{small|Oken (1841)}} |synonyms_ref = <ref name="POWO"/><ref>[https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:829744-1 ''Visnea mocanera'' L.f.] ''Plants of the World Online''. Retrieved 6 December 2023.</ref> }}

'''''Visnea''''' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in family Pentaphylacaceae.<ref>{{Citation |last=Stevens |first=P.F. |title=Angiosperm Phylogeny Website |url=http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ |access-date=2014-09-18 }}</ref> The genus contains a single species, '''''Visnea mocanera''''' a tree native to the Canary Islands and Madeira.<ref name="POWO">{{cite web |title=''Visnea'' L.f. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:39153-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=8 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

The fruits of the tree (known as ''Mocan'') are edible.<ref name="Hernández">{{cite journal |last1=Hernández-Pérez |first1=Margarita |last2=Frı́as |first2=Juana |last3=Rabana |first3=Rosa |last4=Vidal-Valverde |first4=Concepción |title=Proximate Composition of "Mocan" (Visnea mocanera L.f.): A Fruit Consumed by Canary Natives Author links open overlay panell |journal=Journal of Food Composition and Analysis |date=September 1994 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=203–207|doi=10.1006/jfca.1994.1020 }}</ref><ref>Marcelino J. del Arco Aguilar and Octavio Rodríguez Delgado {{google books|PYxlDwAAQBAJ|Vegetation of the Canary Islands (2018 )|page=321}}</ref>

The genus name of ''Visnea'' is in honour of Gérard de Visme (c. 1725 – c. 1797), a French and English merchant in Lisbon, Portugal.<ref>{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition |trans-title=Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2018 | isbn=978-3-946292-26-5 |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2018 | s2cid=187926901 }}</ref> The genus was first described by Carl Linnaeus the Younger in 1782, and published in Suppl. Pl. on page 36.<ref name="POWO"/>

Note; ''Visnea'' <small>Steud. ex Endl.</small> is a synonym of ''Barbacenia'', a genus in a different family.<ref name=WCSP_300122>{{citation |title=''Barbacenia''|work=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |url=http://wcsp.science.kew.org/namedetail.do?name_id=300122 |access-date=2018-02-10}}</ref>

==Fossil record== Four fossil seeds of a ''Visnea'' sp. have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.<ref>Angiosperm Fruits and Seeds from the Middle Miocene of Jutland (Denmark) by Else Marie Friis, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters 24:3, 1985</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Pentaphylacaceae Category:Monotypic Ericales genera Category:Flora of the Canary Islands Category:Flora of Madeira Category:Conservation dependent plants Category:Plants described in 1782 Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus the Younger Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot