| Actinodaphne | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Laurales |
| Family: | Lauraceae |
| Genus: | Actinodaphne Nees |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Actinodaphne is an Asian genus of the family Lauraceae, Laurel bay related, that comprises a group of flowering plants within the order Laurales.
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It is a botanical genus of dioecious evergreen trees and shrubs with 140 species of the Lauraceae, in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, with 17 chinese species, 13 endemic. They are trees of 3 to 25 m tall, with leaves usually clustered or nearly verticillate, rarely alternate or opposite, unlobed, pinninerved, rarely triplinerved. The flowers are having star shape, are small and greenish. The flowers are clustered or whorled and are Unisexual.[1] Umbels solitary or clustered or arranged in a panicle or raceme; involucral bracts imbricate, caducous. The perianth tube is short; perianth segments usually 6 in 2 whorls of 3 each, nearly equal, rarely persistent. The male flowers: fertile stamens usually 9 in 3 whorls of 3 each; filaments of 1st and 2nd whorls eglandular, of 3rd whorls 2-glandular at base; anthers all introrse and 4-celled, cells opening by lids; rudimentary pistil small or lacking. The female flowers with staminodes as many as stamens of male flowers; ovary superior; stigma shield-shaped or dilated. Fruit is a berry seated on shallow or deep cup-shaped or discoid perianth tube. It have a small single seed dispersed mostly by birds
They Grow in low evergreen tropical forest regions but also in tropical mountain cloud forest and laurel forest. Species in less humid environment are smaller or less robust, with less abundant and thinner foliage and have oleifera cells that give trees a more fragrant aroma. The ecological requirements of the genus, are those of fog moisture precipitating almost continuously in a natural habitat cloud-covered for much of the year. These genus species are found in tropical forests, subtropical temperate evergreen, and montane evergreen forests, which is a type of rainforest or Cloud Forest, an ecosystem of great exuberance characterized by high humidity, no seasonal changes and with a wide variety of botanical and zoological species but also highly fragile against external aggressions. The temperate evergreen and evergreen forests are typically multispecies with evergreen and hardwood trees, reaching up to 40 meters in height. The forests are made up of laurel-leaved evergreen hardwood trees, harbouring a rich biota of understorey plants, invertebrates, birds and mammalians.
It is present in cool temperate zones in montane tropical and subtropical montane rainforest, Actinodaphne require continuously moist soil, and do not tolerate drought and frost. The laurel trees falls within the broad-leaved forests; mid-montane deciduous forests; and high-montane mixed stunted forests. Some species growing to high altitude forests at 1,500–3,300 metres (4,900–10,800 ft). The upper limit of forests ranges from 3,000–3,300 m (9,800–10,800 ft).