Symplocos

Symplocos is a genus of flowering plants in the order Ericales. It contains about 300 species distributed in Asia and the Americas. Many species grow in humid tropical regions. This is sometimes considered to be the only genus in family Symplocaceae. Plants in this family are shrubs and trees with white or yellow flowers. The oldest fossils of the genus date to the lower Eocene of Europe and North America, with the genus being present in Europe as late as the Pliocene. Fossil seeds of †Symplocos granulosa are frequent in sediment rock layers of the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene of Denmark, Germany, Austria and Poland. The fossil seeds are very similar to the seeds of the extan southern Chinese species Symplocos glandulifera and Symplocos sulcata. Fossil seeds of †Symplocos paucicostata are known from the Middle Pliocene sediment rock layers in Reuver, the Netherlands and from the Late Pliocene sediment rock layers in northern Italy. The fossil seeds are very similar to the seeds of the extant East Asian species Symplocos paniculata
Selected species
Symplocos adenophylla
Symplocos ampulliformis — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos anamallayana
Symplocos anomala
Symplocos austromexicana — deciduous shrub up to 2m; narrow endemic, Oaxaca, Mexico
Symplocos badia
Symplocos baehnii
Symplocos barberi
Symplocos bauerlenii — shrub or small tree up to 7m; eastern Australia
Symplocos blancae
Symplocos bractealis
Symplocos breedlovei
Symplocos calycodactylos
Symplocos candelabrum — tree up to 13m; Lord Howe Island
Symplocos canescens
Symplocos carmencitae
Symplocos chloroleuca
Symplocos clethrifolia
Symplocos citrea
Symplocos coccinea
Symplocos cochinchinensis
var. cochinchinensis
var. gittonsii — Northeast Queensland, Australia
var. glaberrima — Northeast Queensland, Australia
var. pilosiuscula — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos cordifolia — Sri Lanka
Symplocos coreana — Korean sweetleaf, deciduous shrub up to 5m; Japan, Korea
Symplocos coronata — Sri Lanka
Symplocos costaricana – Central America
Symplocos costata
Symplocos crassiramifera — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos cuneata — Sri Lanka
Symplocos cyanocarpa — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos ecuadorica – Ecuador
Symplocos fuscata
Symplocos glauca — evergreen tree up to 15m; Japan, Taiwan, China, Indochina
Symplocos graniticola — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos hayesii — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos henschelii
Symplocos hispidula
Symplocos hylandii — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos junghuhnii
†Symplocos kowalewskii Baltic amber, Eocene
Symplocos lancifolia — evergreen tree up to 5m; Japan
Symplocos longipes
Symplocos lucida — China, Japan, Taiwan, South Asia, Malesia
Symplocos lugubris
Symplocos mezii
Symplocos myrtacea — evergreen tree up to 10m; Japan
Symplocos nairii
Symplocos nivea
Symplocos octopetala
Symplocos oligandra
Symplocos paniculata — (sapphireberry) — deciduous shrub up to 8m; Japan, South Korea; popular as an ornamental plant
Symplocos paucistaminea — Northeast Queensland, Australia
Symplocos pendula
Symplocos peruviana
Symplocos pluribracteata
Symplocos prunifolia — evergreen tree]up to 10m; Japan, Korea
Symplocos pulchra — Sri Lanka
Symplocos pyriflora
Symplocos racemosa — China, South Asia
Symplocos rimbachii
Symplocos shilanensis
Symplocos sousae
Symplocos stawellii — shrub or small tree up to 30m; eastern Australia
var. montana — Northeast Queensland, Australia
var. stawellii — Australia
Symplocos subandina
Symplocos subintegra Chatterjee
Symplocos tacanensis
Symplocos tanakae — evergreen tree; Japan
Symplocos theophrastaefolia — evergreen tree up to 15m; Japan, Taiwan, China
Symplocos thwaitesii — shrub or small tree up to 17m; eastern Australia
Symplocos tinctoria — (sweetleaf, horse-sugar, yellowwood) — deciduous or evergreen shrub or tree up to 6m; United States
Symplocos trichoclada
Symplocos truncata
Symplocos tubulifera
Symplocos verrucisurcula
Symplocos versicolor
References
Ericales genera