Pisonia brunoniana

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Pisonia brunoniana

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Nyctaginaceae
Genus: Pisonia
Species: P. brunoniana
Binomial name
Pisonia brunoniana
Endl.
Synonyms

Pisonia sinclairii Hook.f.
Heimerliodendron brunonianum (Endl.) Skottsb.

Pisonia brunoniana is a small tree native to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Hawaii. The common names in New Zealand are Parapara or Birdcatcher tree.

Contents

[edit] Habit

Pisonia brunoniana is a spreading tree to 6 m or more tall. The wood is soft and the branches are brittle. The large leaves are opposite or ternate, glabrous, and glossy, entire, and obtuse to rounded at apex. The inflorescence is paniculate, many-flowered, and the flowers are unisexual. The very sticky fruits, in which small birds are often trapped, are narrowly ellipsoidal, and 2–3 cm long, having 5 ribs.

[edit] Distribution in New Zealand

The seeds of P. brunoniana turn black and sticky as they ripen
The seeds of P. brunoniana turn black and sticky as they ripen

In New Zealand, Pisonia brunoniana grows in coastal forest on Raoul Island in the Kermadec group, on the Three Kings Islands, and in the North Island in scattered locations from Whangape Harbour to Mangawhai. Historically, it grew near Auckland, on the Coromandel Peninsula and at East Cape. It is now mainly found on offshore islands, especially rodent-free islands, where it often forms an important understorey component of mixed-broadleaf forest.

The plant is almost extinct in the North Island, partly because the large leaves of P. brunoniana are eagerly eaten by browsing animals such as possums, goats and feral cattle. However the main threat to accessible populations is the cutting down of trees by people trying to prevent small songbirds from becoming trapped by the sticky seeds.[1]

The plant is reasonably common in cultivation as a decorative tree in New Zealand, especially in the northern North Island. Two variegated cultivars are sold as P. brunoniana in New Zealand nurseries, although one of these, which has leaves extensively marbled with white, may in fact be P. umbellifera, a similar species which occurs throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific.

[edit] In Hawaiʻi

In Hawaiʻi, where it is known as pāpala kēpau, P. brunoniana is most common in dry to mesic habitats. Although abundant in certain locations, such as Kīpuka Puaulu, it has a relatively restricted distribution compared to the related species P. sandwicensis and P. umbellifera. The sticky fruits were employed by the Hawaiian kia manu (bird catchers) to trap birds in order to collect feathers for capes and other objects.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Research in the Seychelles into seabird deaths caused by a related species, Pisonia grandis, indicates that the sticky fruits were evolved to increase the likelihood that they will be transferred on the plumage of a seabird to a distant island, thus acting to promote the long-distance dispersal of the species (Nature Seychelles, Seabirds killed by trees: accident or design?. Accessed 11 May 2007).

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has more pictures of: Pisonia brunoniana
  • Metcalf, Laurie, 2002. A Photographic Guide to Trees of New Zealand. Auckland: New Holland.
  • Salmon, J.T., 1986. The Native Trees of New Zealand. Wellington: Heinneman Reed.
  • Flora of Australia Online Pisonia brunoniana. Accessed 3 May 2007.
  • Hawaiian Ethnobotany Online Database, Bishop Museum. URL: Papala kepau. Accessed 3 May 2007.
  • New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, URL: Pisonia brunoniana. Accessed 3 May 2007.
  • Plants of Hawaii, URL:Papala kepau. Accessed 3 May 2007.
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