| Nothaphoebe | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Laurales |
| Family: | Lauraceae |
| Genus: | Nothaphoebe Blume |
Nothaphoebe is a genus of plant in family Lauraceae[1] with about 40 species in East asia, south east Asia, and North America.
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Distribution from China to peninsula Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Borneo, Philippines. In North America from Texas to south with more species mostly in Central America. The wood is used for house building.
Evergreen lauroide hermaphrodite shrubs or trees in tropical and subtropical rainforest, Cloud forest and wet lands. They have leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, glabrous, penninerved. Stipules absent. Flowers, small, yellow, yellow-green, yellow-red, placed in small umbells in cymose panicles axillary or terminal, branched, pedunculate. The flowers bisexual, pedicellate; bracteoles minute. Perianth tube short; perianth lobes 6, unequal, outer 3 much smaller. 9 fertile stamens; filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 shortly stalked orbicular-reniform or broadly reniform glands, others glandless; anthers 4-celled, cells of 1st and 2nd whorls all introrse but those of 3rd whorl extrorse or lateral-extrorse. 3 staminodes, of innermost whorl, triangular-cordate, shortly stalked. Ovary ovoid; style slender; stigma capitate. The fruit is a green drupe, a berry ellipsoid or globose.
From shrubs to upper canopy trees up to 47 m tall and 80 cm dbh. In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp and swamp forests up to 1700 m[2] altitude. Both common on alluvial sites and along rivers as well as on hillsides and ridges. On clay to sandy soils. In secondary forests usually present as a pre-disturbance remnant tree. The ecological requirements of the genus are those of the laurel forest and like most of their counterparts laurifolia in the world, they are vigorous species with a great ability to populate the habitat that is conducive. The natural habitat is rainforest which is cloud-covered for much of the year. The species is found in forests that face threats of destruction by human deforestation.
Because of the special lack of worldwide knowledge about the family lauraceae in general, very little is known about their diversity. The knowledge of this family on a national level is that to be expected in countries with limited economic means, i.e. the vast majority of species is indeterminate or at least poorly determined. On the other hand, a high percentage of recently described new species come from collections made in these countries. Therefore an increase in the study of the family on national level is of utmost importance for the progress of the systematics of the family in general. Recent monographs of the small and medium genera of lauraceae with up to 100 species per genus have produced a high increase in the number of known species. This high increase is expected for other genera as well, particularly for those with more than 150 species recorded, bringing an expected considerable increase in the total number of species of the family.
A related vegetal community evolved millions of years ago on the supercontinent of Gondwana, and species of this community are now found on several separate areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including South America, Africa, New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia.
It contains the following species, but this list is incomplete: