Acmopyle
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Acmopyle is a genus of conifers belonging to the podocarp family Podocarpaceae. The genus includes two species of evergreen small to tall well-branched trees and large trees. Acmopyle is limited to two species, A. pancheri, endemic to New Caledonia, and A. sahniana, endemic to Fiji.
The podocarps are characteristic of the Antarctic flora, which evolved in the cool, humid southern portion of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. Gondwana broke apart between 110 and 30 million years ago into the continents of South America, Australia, Africa, India, and Antarctica, along with several large islands. New Caledonia is an ancient fragment of Gondwana, and is rich in podocarp species. Fiji is much younger geologically, and was not part of any continent; Acmopyle must have reached Fiji from across the sea.
[edit] References
- Hill, R.S. and Carpenter, R. 1991. Evolution of Acmopyle and Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) foliage as inferred from macrofossils in south-eastern Australia. Australian Systematic Botany, 4: 449-79.
- de Laubenfels, David J. 1972. No. 4, Gymnospermes, in A. Aubréville and Jean-F. Leroy, eds., Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances. Paris: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.
- Pole, M.S., 1997. Miocene conifers from the Manuherikia Group, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 27: 355-370.
- Vidakovic, Mirko. 1991. Conifers: morphology and variation. Translated from Croatian by Maja Soljan. Croatia: Graficki Zavod Hrvatske.
