Tetracentron sinense

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Tetracentron sinense
Tetracentron sinense, leaves and flowers
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Trochodendrales
Family: Trochodendraceae
Genus: Tetracentron
Species:
T. sinense
Binomial name
Tetracentron sinense

Tetracentron sinense is a

Tetracentraceae, though Tetracentron is now included in the family Trochodendraceae together with the genus Trochodendron
.

Range and habitat

It is native to southern

Himalaya (eastern Nepal, Bhutan, Northeast India, and northern Myanmar), where it grows at altitudes of 1,100–3,500 m (3,600–11,500 ft) along streams and forest margins in broad-leaved evergreen and mixed evergreen-deciduous forests.[1]

Morphology

It is a

spur shoots
, each leaf dark green, broad heart-shaped, 5–13 cm (2.0–5.1 in) long and 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) broad, with a rugose surface and a serrated margin. The spur shoots bear one leaf each year, slowly lengthening with each subsequent year.

The flowers are inconspicuous, yellowish green, without petals, produced on slender catkins 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) long; each flower is 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) diameter. The fruit is a follicle 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) diameter, containing 4–6 seeds.

Tetracentron and Trochodendron share the very unusual feature of lacking vessel elements in the wood, something not typical in angiosperms. This has long been considered a very primitive character, resulting in the classification of these two genera in a basal position in the angiosperms; however, molecular phylogenetics research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and others has shown that these two genera are not basal angiosperms, but related basal eudicots.[2][3] This suggests that the absence of vessel elements in this group is a secondarily evolved character, not a primitive one.

  • Branches
    Branches
  • Leaves and flowers
    Leaves and flowers
  • Leaves and flowers
    Leaves and flowers
  • Leaves and flowers
    Leaves and flowers
  • Fall color
    Fall color
  • Young seeds
    Young seeds
  • Young seeds
    Young seeds

References

  1. ^ Bartholomew, Bruce. "Tetracentron sinense". Flora of China. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  2. .
  3. .

External links