Medusagyne
Jellyfish tree | |
---|---|
Flower buds, open flowers and the medusa-like dehisced fruit (below) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Ochnaceae |
Subfamily: | Medusagynoideae Reveal |
Genus: | Medusagyne Baker |
Species: | M. oppositifolia
|
Binomial name | |
Medusagyne oppositifolia |
Medusagyne oppositifolia, the jellyfish tree, is a species of tree
Description
They are small trees which can reach up to 15 m (49 ft) tall and have a dense rounded crown of foliage.
Classification
The genus Medusagyne is in the family Ochnaceae, e.g. in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification, though it is sometimes in the monogeneric family Medusagynaceae. The small tropical American family Quiinaceae is also included in this broad concept of Ochnaceae.[7]
Development
The pollen ontogeny of the Medusagyne oppositifolia has some unique features that are shown. These features include a large onci that is composed of fibrilla spacer during the early stage of development to represent the atria section of it.[citation needed]
Habitat
The tree inhabits exposed granite slopes, at present all locations are within 2 km (1.2 mi) of the sea.[2]
Threats
The jellyfish tree presents a conundrum in that the seeds seem unable to germinate in the wild; no young plants have been observed in the natural stands.[8] Successful cultivation in botanic gardens has occurred in very humid conditions, but high humidity is unlikely in the exposed habitat where these trees are found in the wild.[8] It has been suggested that jellyfish trees have been lost from the more appropriate habitat of moist forests through competition with other species and climate change.[8]
Conservation
Three of the existing populations of jellyfish tree on the island on
References
This article incorporates text from the
- ^ . Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Wise, R. (1998). A Fragile Eden. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Heywood, Prof. V.H. (1978). Flowering Plants of the World. New York: Mayflower Books. p. 82.
- ^ Hutchinson, John (1959). Families of Flowering Plants -Volume One Dicots. Cambridge, England: Clarendon Press. p. 280.
- ^ Robertson, Ann, Rosemary Wise, and Frank White. 1989. Medusagyne oppositifolia. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 6: 166–171. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8748.1989.tb00650.x
- ISBN 0-691-08560-9.
- Medusagyne oppositifolia. KewBulletin 52: 111-120.
- ^ a b c d e Gerlach, J. (1997). Seychelles Red Data Book. Seychelles: The Nature Protection Trust of the Seychelles.
External links
- Dressler, S.; Schmidt, M. & Zizka, G. (2014). "Medusagyne". African plants – a Photo Guide. Frankfurt/Main: Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg.