Picconia

For other uses, see Picconia (fly).
Picconia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Oleaceae
Tribe: Oleeae
Genus: Picconia
DC.
Species

See text

Picconia (Picconia) is a genus of two species flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. In the laurel forests habitat, of Macaronesia islands of the eastern North Atlantic.[1] They are evergreen shrubs to trees with large, opposite, entire, shiny, ovoid leaves and numerous flowers. The fruit is a drupe. The flowers are small white and fragrant, followed by one-seeded, olive-like green fruit, ripening to bluish-black.[2] Picconia are native of open spots in the laurel forest of the Canary Islands and Madeira where they are found only in the humid to hyper-humid evergreen forests of the cloud belt.[3] Tree species with laurel-shaped leaves are predominant, forming a dense canopy up to 40 m high that can be hardly trespassed by light, which results in scant vegetation in the understory.[4] Most of these tree species in Africa are ancient Paleoendemic[5] species of the genera Laurus, Ocotea, Persea, and Picconia, which in ancient times were widely distributed on the African and European continents.[6][7]

Species

References

Notes
  1. ↑ http://biblioteca.universia.net/html_bura/ficha/params/title/vegetative-propagation-of-the-endangered-azorean-tree-picconia-azorica/id/54598910.html
  2. ↑ http://www.rareplants.de/shop/prodtype.asp?strPageHistory=compare&CAT_ID=714
  3. ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/management/habitats/pdf/9360_Macaronesian_laurel_forests.pdf
  4. ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/management/habitats/pdf/9360_Macaronesian_laurel_forests.pdf
  5. ↑ http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1598/2149.full
  6. ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/management/habitats/pdf/9360_Macaronesian_laurel_forests.pdf
  7. ↑ http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1598/2149.full
  8. ↑ Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e do Mar (2008), Plantas Endémicas dos Açores: Guia da Ilha do Faial, p.13
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