Altingia chinensis

Altingia chinensis
Altingia chinensis
Systematics
Eudicotyledons Nuclear eudicotyledons Order : Saxifragales (Saxifragales) Family : Altingiaceae Genre : Altingia Type : Altingia chinensis
Scientific name
Altingia chinensis
( Champ. Ex Benth. ) Olive. ex Hance

Altingia chinensis is an evergreen deciduous tree species from the small family of Altingiaceae within the order of saxifrage-like (Saxifragales). It occurs in southern China and Vietnam .

description

Vegetative characteristics

The evergreen tree reaches a height of up to 35 m and a trunk diameter of up to 60 cm. It has a slightly rough bark. The plant is completely bare with the exception of the buds and inflorescences . The buds are covered with scales and are ovate and hairy. The helically arranged leaves are stalked 0.7–1.5 cm long. The stipules are small and decrepit and leave small scars . The simple and undivided, pinnate leaf blade is oblong-obverse-shaped and has a length of 7–13 cm and a width of 3–4.5 cm. It has a wedge base and is pointed at the front. The leathery blade is two-colored. The 7–8 pairs of lateral nerves protruding on both sides form an angle of approximately 45 degrees with the midrib and are too strongly bent and ramified towards the edge. The lateral nerves form a dense, clearly visible network. The spreading edge is notched and sawed like a gland.

Generative characteristics

The sex distribution of the flowers is single sexed ( monoecious ). The flowers do not have an inflorescence .

The male inflorescences are multi-flowered, cylindrical, about 1 cm long heads . They are usually arranged in 8–10 terminal, 5–7 cm long racemes to panicles. The lower heads have a downy stem, the upper ones are almost sessile. The male flowers consist only of non-fused stamens with almost sessile, basifix, that is, obovate, ovoid anthers attached to the base of the stamen. The two counters trimmed at the top each consist of two pollen sacks and open lengthways with a slit.

The female inflorescences are spherical heads, which stand individually or in groups at the base of the male inflorescences. They are stalked 2–4 cm long, surrounded at the base by four to five ovate or lanceolate, 10–15 mm long bracts and consist of 15–26 (–50) interconnected flowers. These contain only half under constant ovary consisting of two fused to each other, free only at the tip carpels is, a surrounding disc and several bespitzte Staminodien . The irregularly notched disc lobes have grown together to form a woody mass at the base of the ovary. The two awl, 3–4 mm long, whitish, downy-haired to papillary styles have a recurved tip. Each of the two ovary compartments contains about twelve ovules on the central angular placenta .

The approximately 32–58 mm long stalked, approximately spherical fruit stands are dark green when fresh and covered by a whitish down. They have a truncated base. The fruit heads are approximately 18-25 mm long and 22.4-28 mm wide and contain 14-20 individual fruits . The individual fruits are woody, two-compartment capsule fruits , which open in folds with two two-part flaps. The upper part of the style and the staminodes are no longer present in the fruit state. The brown, glossy, wrinkled seeds are 4.4–5.7 mm long and 2.3–3.3 mm wide.

Altingia chinensis flowers from March to June and fruit from July to September.

distribution and habitat

Altingia chinensis is widespread in southern China. The closed area extends in the north from Zhejiang via Hunan and Guizhou to the southeast of Yunnan , in the south to Hainan and to Sa Pa in the Vietnamese province of Lào Cai . The species is also found in southern Vietnam near Nha Trang .

The tree grows in forests in 600- 1000  m . In Vietnam occurrences up to around 1700  m are known.

Taxonomy and systematics

The species was first described in 1852 by George Bentham on the basis of a collection of the British officer and naturalist John George Champion in the genus of the sweetgum trees as Liquidambar chinense and was only added to the genus Altingia in 1872 by the British diplomat and botanist Henry Fletcher Hance . The type locality is in Hong Kong .

Some authors consider Altingia multinervis , Altingia obovata and Altingia yunnanensis to be synonyms of Altingia chinensis . The great genetic similarity of Altingia obovata to Altingia chinensis has since been confirmed by a molecular biological study. Furthermore, it could be shown in the same work that Altingia chinensis and Altingia obovata together with Liquidambar formosana and Liquidambar acalycina were or are involved in the hybridogenic development of Semiliquidambar cathayensis .

At a molecular biological study of five sections of chloroplasts - DNA has Altingia chinensis as part of a hard resolvable further clade represented ( "E. Asian clade"), in addition to several Altingia TYPES even types of Liquidambar and Semiliquidambar included. Another plant examined, which could only be assigned to Altingia chinensis with uncertainty , was found to be part of another clade ("Indochina clade"), which also contained plants of Altingia poilanei and Altingia yunnanensis .

According to R. Govaerts, the species is best known as Liquidambar chinensis Champ. ex Benth. put to Liquidambar .

etymology

The specific epithet chinensis refers to the occurrence of the species in China. The genus Altingia is named in honor of Willem Arnold Alting (1724-1800), the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies at the time when the first descriptor Francisco Noroña visited Java .

use

The wood is used to make furniture. It also contains essential oils that are used medicinally and as a perfume .

swell

• Tardieu blot M.-L. 1965: Hamamelidaceae. In: Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam. Fasc. 4. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, pp. 75-116.
• Zhang Zhiyun, Zhang Hongda, Endress PK 2003: Hamamelidaceae. In: Flora of China. Vol. 9. Science Press, Beijing, Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, ISBN 1-930723-14-8 , pp. 18-42. - Altingia chinensis - Online.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tardieu blot M.-L. 1965 , p. 96.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Ickert-Bond SM, Pigg KB, Wen J. 2007: Comparative infructescence morphology in Altingia (Altingiaceae) and discordance between morphological and molecular phylogenies. American Journal of Botany 94: 1094-1115. - doi : 10.3732 / ajb.94.7.1094
3. ^ Bentham G. 1852: Florula Hongkongensis: An enumeration of the plants collected in the island of Hong-Kong, by Major JG Champion. Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany 4: 164-172. - online
4. ↑ Hance HF 1872 (“1873”): Florae Hongkongensis Supplementum. A compendious supplement to Mr. Bentham's description of the plants of the island of Hong Kong. The Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 13: 95-144. - online
5. ↑ Wu Wei, Zhou Renchao, Huang Yelin, Boufford DE, Shi Suhua 2010: Molecular evidence for natural intergeneric hybridization between Liquidambar and Altingia. Journal of Plant Research 123: 231-239. - doi : 10.1007 / s10265-009-0275-z
6. ↑ Ickert-Bond SM, Wen J. 2006: Phylogeny and biogeography of Altingiaceae: Evidence from combined analysis of five non-coding chloroplast regions. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39: 512-528. - doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.12.003
7. ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Liquidambar - World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Last accessed on September 14, 2018.
8. ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Birkhäuser, Basel / Boston / Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7643-2390-6 , p. 150 ( preview with Google book search ).
9. ↑ Hayne FG 1830: Faithful representation and description of the plants used in medicine. Vol. 11. Berlin. - Preview in Google Book Search

Web links

• Altingia chinensis. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), ARS, National Genetic Resources Program, National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, accessed October 12, 2012 .