Amentotaxus

Amentotaxus needles, 49 million years old

Amentotaxus is a plant genus in the family of Yews ( Taxaceae ) within the order of conifers ( Coniferales ). The prefix " Amento " means as much as " Kitten " Amentotaxus consequently, the " kitten yew ".

Description

The Amentotaxus species are evergreen shrubs or small trees. The leathery, needle-shaped leaves are opposite, are pointed and have two Stomatabänder bluish on the undersides.

They are dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( dioecious ), which means that male and female gender are not found together on an individual. Several male cones are together, they look like catkins from ( hence the name) and are 3-15 cm long. The seeds are (like all species in the family of Taxaceae ) surrounded by an aril, but not completely enclosing the seeds; at Amentotaxus species this is colored in various shades of red.

Dissemination

The home of the types of Amentotaxus is located in China, India, Vietnam and Taiwan.

System

Until 1952 Amentotaxus was with Amentotaxus Argotaenia as monotypic genus. Hui -Lin Li differentiated on the basis of leaf morphology and distribution area the genus into four species. Today we distinguish the following six species and two varieties:

  • Amentotaxus Argotaenia ( Hance ) pilgrim: Amentotaxus Argotaenia ( Hance ) pilgrims var Argotaenia
  • Amentotaxus Argotaenia var brevifolia KMLan & FHZhang

The outer systematics of the genus Amentotaxus was unclear for a long time. Due to the similarities of the male cones, she was assigned to the family of head Yews ( Cephalotaxaceae ); was proposed because of the number of chromosomes own family ( Amentotaxaceae ). Finally, phylogenetic analyzes have confirmed the classification of the yew family ( Taxaceae ).

Swell

  • Christopher J. Earle: Amentotaxus. In: The Gymnosperm Database. December 12, 2010, accessed 30 October 2011 (English).
  • Liguo Fu, Nan Li, Robert R. Mill: Amentotaxus. In: Wu Zheng -yi, Peter H. Raven (eds.): Flora of China. Volume 4: Cycadaceae through Fagaceae, Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 1999, ISBN 0-915279-70-3, page 92
Pinophyta Robert Knud Friedrich Pilger Amentotaxus assamica Amentotaxus formosana Amentotaxus hatuyenensis Amentotaxus poilanei Amentotaxus yunnanensis Digital Object Identifier
56231
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