Abrophyllum

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Abrophyllum

Abrophyllum ornans in Engler & Prantl

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Saxifragales
Family:	Saxifragaceae s. l.
Genus:	Abrophyllum Hook. f. ex Benth.
Species:	A. ornans

Binomial name

Abrophyllum ornans
Hook. f.

Abrophyllum (Syn.: Brachynema F.Muell.) is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Saxifragaceae sensu lato according to Engler, A. in Engler & Prantl and Schulze-Menz, G. K. in Melchior, 1964; placed in Subfamily Escallonioideae, Tribe Cuttsieae, it is closely related to Cuttsia.

The sole species is Abrophyllum ornans. Its common name is Native Hydrangea, but it does not have great affinity with the true Hydrangea.

1 Classification
2 Distribution
3 Description
4 Uses
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Classification

It is also classified in Escalloniaceae (by Hutchinson, 1967; Dahlgren; Thorne), Grossulariaceae (Cronquist, 1988), Carpodetaceae (APG I, 1998), Rousseaceae (APG II, 2003 and Shipunov, 2005), or even in its own family Abrophyllaceae Nakai (Reveal and Takhtajan, 1997).

[edit] Distribution

It is native to Australia (New South Wales and Queensland). Habitat: warm-temperate and subtropical rainforest, especially along smaller watercourses or in gullies on poorer soils.

[edit] Description

Shrubs or small trees to 8 m high; leaves simple, mostly 10-20 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, alternate, large, lanceolate, long-acuminate, subserrate; without stipules, petiole 20-40 mm long. Flowers in terminal or axillary cymes, yellowish. Calyx is short (c. 2 mm long.), tubular, lobes usually 5 or sometimes 6, deciduous. Petals 4-5 mm long, usually 5 or sometimes 6, valvate, spreading, deciduous. Stamens usually 5 or sometimes 6, inserted on the margin of the inconspicuous nectary disk; anthers broad oblong; filaments very short. Gynoecium of 5 carpels, receptacle patelliform. Ovary superior, 5-locular, with numerous axile ovules, stigma sessile, 5-lobed. Fruit a small (8-12 mm long, 5-7 mm wide), oblong, dark, mainly black berry, crowned by the stigma, many-seeded; seeds small, subglobose, testa deeply latticed; embryo very small; endosperm fleshy and oily.

[edit] Uses

Sometimes (locally) cultivated for its ornamental foliage and fruits.

[edit] References

Bentham, G. & Hooker, J. D. (1862-1867). Genera Plantarum.Volume I, p. 647. Reeve, London
Engler, A. (1930). Saxifragaceae. In Engler, A. & Prantl, K.:Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, 18a, 2nd Edition, p. 213. (In German)
Schulze-Menz, G.K. (1964). Rosales. In H. Melchior (Editor). A. Engler's: Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien, Volume II, 12th edition. Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, pp. 193–242.
Hutchinson, J.(1967):The Genera of Flowering Plants, Volume II, p. 30.
Gustafsson, M. H. G. & Bremer, K. (1997). The circumscription and systematic position of Carpodetaceae.Australian Systematic Botany 10(6): 855-862. [It is proposed that the family Carpodetaceae be expanded to encompass Abrophyllum and Cuttsia.]
Takhtajan, A. (1997). Diversity and classification of flowering plants, 370-373. ISBN 0-231-10098-1
Hils, M. H. (1985). Comparative anatomy and systematics of twelve woody Australasian genera of the Saxifragaceae. Matthew Hils: Florida xvi, 239, [33]p. - illus. Icones, Anatomy and morphology. Thesis: University of Florida: PhD [including Abrophyllum]