Biology:Nothomyrcia
Nothomyrcia is a genus in the family Myrtaceae, the myrtle family. It is a monotypic taxon, with Nothomyrcia fernandeziana (Luma de Juan Fernández) as the sole species in the genus.[1] Nothomyrcia fernandeziana is a tree endemic to Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernández Islands of Chile.[1]
Description
Nothomyrcia fernandeziana can grow to 20–28 meters in height and up to 1 meter in diameter with mature specimens.[2] Its bark is whitish or grayish, and its leaves are 3–10 cm long by 1.5–3.2 cm wide.[2] The leaves are hypostomatic with anomocytic stomatal complexes.[3] Nothomyrcia fernandeziana has hermaphrodite flowers with 4 sepals and 4 white petals with numerous stamens.[2]
Its fruits are small (8 x 8 mm), reddish when ripe with 2–3 aromatic seeds, and are dispersed by birds and by gravity.[2] Its maximum age is approximately 250 years with average radial growth of 0.16 to 0.3 cm per year.[4] There is no distinction between its sapwood and heartwood, and its dense, resistant properties have historically made it useful for constructing boats, posts, and agricultural tools.[4]
Distribution
Nothomyrcia fernandeziana is endemic to the montane forests of Robinson Crusoe Island where it historically formed dense stands with species like Drimys confertifolia.[5] The impact of introduced shrubs like Aristotelia chilensis and Rubus ulmifolius is higher in the Nothomyrcia forests than it is in areas of tree ferns.[5]
Nothomyrcia fernandeziana is at severe risk of habitat loss, as its estimated extent of occurrence is less than 36 km2.[2] Threats from introduced herbivores like rabbits, rats, and domestic livestock have caused IUCN to list this species as critically endangered.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedpowo - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namediucn - ↑ Retamales, Hernan A.; Scharaschkin, Tanya (November 2015). "Comparative leaf anatomy and micromorphology of the Chilean Myrtaceae: Taxonomic and ecological implications". Flora 217: 138-154. doi:10.1016/j.flora.2015.10.005.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Almonacid, Pamela; Rojas-Badilla, Moisés; LeQuesne, Carlos; Muñoz-Salazar, Tomás; Christie, Duncan A. (October 2023). "Dendroecological analysis of the remote endemic Nothomyrcia fernandeziana forests of Robinson Crusoe Island in the Southeast Pacific". Dendrochronologia 81. doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2023.126129. 126129.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Greimler, Joseph; López Sepúlveda, Patricio; Reiter, Karl (2018). "Vegetation". Plants of Oceanic Islands: Evolution, Biogeography, and Conservation of the Flora of the Juan Fernández (Robinson Crusoe) Archipelago. Cambridge University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-107-18007-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ44DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100.
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