Cinchona pubescens

Cinchona pubescens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Cinchona
Species: C. pubescens
Binomial name
Cinchona pubescens
Vahl, 1790

Cinchona pubescens, also known as Red cinchona and quina ((Spanish) Cascarilla, cinchona; (Portuguese) Quina-do-Amazonas, quineira), is native to Central and South America. It is known as a medicinal plant for its bark's high quinine content- and has similar uses to Cinchona officinalis in the production of quinine, most famously used for treatment of malaria.[1]

Distribution

Cinchona pubescens has the widest distribution of all Cinchona species, with the native range spanning Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.[2] In Ecuador it is distributed within an altitude from 300–3,900 metres (980–12,800 ft).

Invasive species

It has become an invasive species where planted outside of its native range, especially on tropical climate islands.[3]

In the Galapagos it has become a dominant species in the formerly shrub dominated Miconia and Fern-Sedge zones [4] on Santa Cruz Island.[5] It has been subject to control in the Galapagos National Park [6] to reduce its impacts using a variety of methods.[7] However, controlling it over its total range on Santa Cruz island would cost several million US dollars according to research done through the Charles Darwin Foundation.[8]

It is also invasive in Hawaii, on Maui and the Big Island [9]

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References

  1. (Kinyuy et al. 1993)
  2. (Acosta-Solis 1945; Missouri Botanical Garden specimen database 2002) Its distribution is at well documented by the Missouri Botanic Garden's Nomenclatural Data Base w3TROPICOS
  3. (Invasive Species Specialist Group
  4. (sensu Wiggins and Porter 1971)
  5. Buddenhagen & Yánez 2005; Buddenhagen et al. 2004; Jäger 1999; Kastdalen 1982; Lawesson 1990; Macdonald et al. 1988; Mauchamp 1997; Tye 2000; (and see more references below)
  6. http://www.galapagospark.org/png/index.php
  7. http://wssa.allenpress.com/pdfserv/i0890-037X-018-05-1194.pdf Buddenhagen et al. 2004
  8. http://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/ (Buddenhagen and Yanez 2005)
  9. Invasive species in Hawaii.

Sources

Wikispecies has information related to: Cinchona pubescens
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