Beilschmiedia berteroana (Southern belloto, Belloto del sur: in Spanish) is a threatened evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 tree in the family Lauraceae

Lauraceae

The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...

 native to Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

: 35 to 37°S.

Description

It can measure 30 m in height and one metre in diameter. The trunk is straight and branched, the bark is gray with longitudinal fissures. Leaves are opposite and sub-opposite, elliptical to aovate-elliptical and they have the entire margin, they are glossy green above and glaucous below. The apex is rounded or slightly emarginated and the base is lightly wedge-shaped. The leaves are about 3-7.5 long and 2-4 wide, pubescent petioles

Petiole (botany)

In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...

 2–5 mm long. Hermaphrodite

Hermaphrodite

In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...

 flowers arranged in inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s about 5–6 cm long. Pedicelate flowers 4–6 mm, greenish-yellow. Glabrous and fleshy tepal

Tepal

Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...

s, stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s 1mm long, staminodes 5mm, style 1mm ends in an obtuse stigma

Stigma (botany)

The stigma is the receptive tip of a carpel, or of several fused carpels, in the gynoecium of a flower. The stigma receives pollen at pollination and it is on the stigma that the pollen grain germinates. The stigma is adapted to catch and trap pollen with various hairs, flaps, or sculpturings...

. The fruit is a green globose berry with a single seed, 1.5–2 cm in diameter, with a point at the apex.

Ecology

It grows at altitudes up to 1800 m above sea level, and it has an acceptable frost tolerance within this mostly tropical genus. A specific example of occurrence is in the La Campana National Park

La Campana National Park

La Campana National Park is located in the Cordillera de la Costa, Quillota Province, in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. La Campana National Park and the Vizcachas Mountains lie northwest of Santiago...

 of central Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 and amid the adjoining Cerro La Campana

Cerro La Campana

Cerro la Campana, the Bell mountain, is a mountain in La Campana National Park in central Chile.The Pacific and the mountain Aconcagua are visible from the summit on clear days....

; in that location it is associated with the endangered Chilean Wine Palm, a tree with a much wider prehistoric distribution than at present.

Uses and cultivation

The bark of B. berteroana is useful for tanning leather. It is often used as an ornamental tree in Chile. It blooms between July and August (southern hemisphere). The flowers are used by introduced European bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

s for producing a very delicious honey. The wood is very beautiful and hard. The tree has been planted and acclimatized in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, but is rarely seen there.

External links

• berteroana in Enciclopedia de la Flora Chilena