Ocotea

Ocotea is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves.
There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas (around 300 species) including the Caribbean and West Indies, but also with some species in Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. One species (O. foetens) is native to the Macaronesia (in Canary Islands and Madeira). The genus is suspected to be paraphyletic.
Description
They are trees or shrubs, occasionally with adventitious roots (O. hartshorniana, O. insularis). Leaves simple, alternate, rarely opposite or whorled. The leaves are lauroid, they are commonly dark green glossy with sometimes brown on the underside and fragrant oil cells.
The African and Madagascan species all have bisexual flowers (possessing both male and female parts), whereas many of the American species have flowers that are unisexual (either male or female).
The apetalous flowers are in small panicles.
The fruits are globose or oblong berries, 3–5 cm in length, hard and fleshy and at the junction of the peduncle part with the fruit covered by a cup-shaped, occasionally flat, cupule, giving them an appearance similar to an acorn. The fruit is dark green, gradually darkening with maturity. The cupule at the base of the berry, can be more brightly colored. The fruit has a single seed wrapped in a hard coat and can be slightly lignified.
Names
The genus has no standard common name. Names often refer to the aroma of the wood, which can be strong and not always pleasant. Sweetwood is usually applied only to this genus, although many names are also applied to this genus and other genera:
Stinkwood can refer to several unrelated trees that have bad-smelling wood. Ocotea bullata is called black stinkwood or true stinkwood, and Ocotea foetens is also called stinkwood.
Camphorwood is usually Cinnamomum camphora a close relative of Ocotea species.
Rosewood (Peruvian rosewood, O. cernua) is normally Dalbergia or related members of the family Fabaceae.
The common names of some species refer to their similarity to other Lauraceae such as Sassafras (Brazilian sassafras: O. odorifera) or Laurus (Cape laurel: O. bullata, Sword laurel: O. floribunda, Guaika laurel: O. puberula, etc.).
Distribution and habitat
Most species of Ocotea are distributed across the tropical Americas, from Mexico to Northern Argentina including the West Indies. Species are also found in eastern Africa from South Africa to Ethiopia, in Gabon and Republic of the Congo in Central Africa, and on Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. One species, Ocotea foetens, is native to the Canary Islands and Madeira in the North Atlantic.
Ocotea species are distributed in subtropical and tropical regions, often at higher elevations. They are characteristic plants of many tropical and subtropical montane forests such as the Araucaria moist forests, Yungas, and Talamancan montane forests in the Americas, Afromontane forests including the Knysna-Amatole montane forests in Africa, and Laurisilva in the Macaronesian islands. In Madagascar and Brazil they also occur in lowland forests.
Ecology
Most relatively small fruit species are of great environmental importance because they are the food of many endemic birds and mammals, especially in Islands, and premontane and montane forests. The leaves of Ocotea species are the food source for the caterpillars of several species of endemic Lepidoptera, including several species of Memphis. Some Memphis caterpillars feed solely on the leaves of one species of Ocotea; for example M. mora feeds only on O. cernua, and M. boisduvali feeds only on O. veraguensis
Seed distribution of some Ocotea species is performed by frugivorous birds such as toucans, the three-wattled bellbird (family Cotingidae), quetzal and Cape parrot. Ocotea fruit is also consumed by several Columbiformes such as Columba trocaz, Delegorgue's pigeon, Bolle's pigeon (Columba bollii), African wood pigeon, and American doves.
Most of the African tree species are ancient paleoendemic species, which in ancient times were widely distributed on the continent. This is not the case in the Americas: 89 species have been collected in Venezuela alone.
Species of Ocotea can be attacked by various rot-inducing root pathogens, including Loweporus inflexibilis, Phellinus apiahynus and Phytophthora cinnamomi.
Some Ocotea species are used as nesting sites by ants, which may live in leaf pockets or in hollowed-out stems. The ants patrol their host plants more frequently in response to disturbance or to the appearance of insect pests such as grasshoppers.
Uses
Ocotea produce essential oils, which are rich in camphor and safrole. East African camphorwood (O. usambarensis), Peruvian rosewood (O. cernua) and Brazilian sassafras (O. odorifera) are traded internationally.
Dried fruit cupules of ishpingo (O. quixos) are used in Ecuador to flavor beverages, such as colada morada.
Some fast growing Ocotea tree species are harvested commercially for timber. These include O. puberula, O. bullata (black or true stinkwood) and O. usambarensis. The timber is valued for its resistance to fungal decay.
O. odorifera (Brazilian sassafras) and O. kuhlmanni are frequently used as honey plants.
Selected species
The following are some of the species of Ocotea. Distinguishing Ocotea species from Nectandra and other close relatives is problematic. Povedadaphne may be better placed in Ocotea.
Ocotea aciphylla
Ocotea acutifolia (Nees) Mez
Ocotea albida
Ocotea albopunctulata
Ocotea amazonica
Ocotea amplifolia
Ocotea arnottiana
Ocotea atirrensis
Ocotea bangii
Ocotea basicordatifolia
Ocotea benthamiana
Ocotea bofo
Ocotea bullata – black stinkwood, true stinkwood
Ocotea camphoromoea
Ocotea catharinensis
Ocotea cernua – Peruvian rosewood
Ocotea clarkei
Ocotea corymbosa Mez
Ocotea cuneifolia
Ocotea cymbarum (often included in O. odorifera)
Ocotea diospyrifolia (Meisn.) Mez
Ocotea dispersa (Nees) Mez
Ocotea divaricata (Nees) Mez
Ocotea domatiata Mez
Ocotea fasciculata (Nees) Mez
Ocotea floribunda
Ocotea foeniculacea – black sweetwood
Ocotea foetens – "til", "tilo"
Ocotea gabonensis
Ocotea glaucosericea
Ocotea glaziovii Mez
Ocotea gracilis
Ocotea guianensis
Ocotea harrisii
Ocotea heterochroma
Ocotea indecora (Schott) Mez
Ocotea insularis
Ocotea illustris
Ocotea infrafoveolata
Ocotea jelskii
Ocotea jorge-escobarii
Ocotea kenyensis
Ocotea lancifolia
Ocotea lancilimba
Ocotea langsdorffii
Ocotea leucoxylon – loblolly sweetwood
Ocotea mandonii
Ocotea marmellensis
Ocotea matogrossensis
Ocotea megaphylla
Ocotea minarum Mart. ex Nees
Ocotea monzonensis
Ocotea moschata – nemoca
Ocotea nemodaphne – laurel sassafras
Ocotea notata (Nees) Mez
Ocotea oblonga
Ocotea obtusata
Ocotea odorifera – Brazilian sassafras
Ocotea oocarpa
Ocotea otuzcensis
Ocotea pachypoda
Ocotea pauciflora
Ocotea porosa
Ocotea porphyria
Ocotea portoricensis
Ocotea prunifolia
Ocotea puberula
Ocotea pulchra Vattimo-Gil
Ocotea quixos – ishpingo
Ocotea raimondii
Ocotea rivularis
Ocotea robertsoniae
Ocotea rotundata
Ocotea rubrinervis
Ocotea rugosa
Ocotea sericea
Ocotea silvestris Vattimo-Gil
Ocotea smithiana
Ocotea spathulata
Ocotea spectabilis
Ocotea spixiana (Nees) Mez
Ocotea staminoides
Ocotea tabacifolia (Meisn.) Rohwer
Ocotea teleiandra (Meisn.) Mez
Ocotea urbaniana Mez
Ocotea uxpanapana
Ocotea vaccinioides Meisn.
Ocotea velloziana
Ocotea velutina Mart.
Ocotea viridiflora
Ocotea wrightii – Wright's laurel canelon
Formerly placed here
Chlorocardium rodiei (bibiru, "greenheart"), as O. rodiei
Nectandra coriacea ("lancewood"), as O. catesbyana, O. coriacea
Sextonia rubra, as O. rubra
Kuloa usambarensis – (East African camphorwood) as O. usambarensis
Fossil record
†Ocotea hradekensis from the early Miocene, has been described from fragmentary fossil leaf compressions that have been found in the Kristina Mine at Hrádek nad Nisou in North Bohemia, the Czech Republic. O. foetens from the Canary Islands is its nearest living relative. Fossil †Ocotea heerii leaf impressions of Messinian age (ca. 5.7 Ma) have been uncovered in Monte Tondo, northern Apennines, Italy.
References
External links
Lauraceae genera
Neotropical realm flora
Afrotropical realm flora