Lindera
Encyclopedia
Lindera is a genus of about 80-100 species of flowering plant
s in the family Lauraceae
, mostly native to eastern Asia
but with three species in eastern North America
. The species are shrub
s and small tree
s; common names include Spicewood, Spicebush, and Benjamin Bush.
, with male and female flowers on separate trees. They are aromatic evergreen
or deciduous
trees or shrubs. Many botanical species are having similar foliage due to convergent evolution in wet lands. Some species are in danger of extinction due to over exploitation as medicinal plants or timber extraction and also for loss of habitat.
The leaves
can be either deciduous
or evergreen
depending on species, and are alternate, entire or three-lobed, and strongly spicy-aromatic. Lindera species are no exception among the Lauraceae; Lindera genus have small flowers, hard to detect and collect and often overlooked or ignored when plants easier to collect or with showier flowers are at hand.
Lindera are woody perennial plants. Their leaves are opposite or alternate with three main veins. The leaves
can be either deciduous
or evergreen
depending on species, and are alternate, entire or three-lobed, and strongly spicy-aromatic.
The inflorescences are composed of 3 to 15 flowers existing pseudo-umbels. They are sessile or on short shoots.
The flowers are from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, yellowish, with star shape and six tepals. Male and female flowers commonly are on different plants. The flowers themselves are trifoliate or irregularly built, in separate sexes. Six equal-faceted bracts, but they may also be missing completely or decrease during the flowering season. The male flowers have nine to 15 fertile stamens, the innermost circle of stamens can be found at the base of the stamens glands. Usually the stamens are longer than the anthers, which in turn consist of two chambers and directed inwards or sideways. The vestigial ovary is very little or absent. The base of the flower is small and flat. The female flowers have a varying number of staminodes. The pollination
is done by bee
s and other insect
s. The most striking are its fruits. The fruit has a small fruit cup, or is free on a thickened stem. The fruit
is a small red, purple or black drupe
containing a single seed
, dispersed mostly by birds. Many species reproduce vegetatively by stolons. Species with strictest ecological requirements and resistant habits, which can survive in conditions that are not appropriate, such as lack of light due to competition with other species but occurring too across a gradient of canopy cover including full sun , intermediate shade, and full shade. Most populations have been observed under closed overstory canopies of bottomland forests, and consequently, considered a shade-tolerant species, occurs also along the margin of a seasonally flooded depressional wetland dominated by Nyssa sylvatica, and Taxodium ascendens, as also in the dense shade of Quercus laurifolia, Acer rubrum, and Liquidambar styraciflua, in the Aultman Forest; The genus grow too in herbaceous zone with little canopy cover adjacent to a cypress dome surrounded by pine plantations, and the other beneath a canopy of A. rubrum, N. sylvatica, and T. ascendens. The ecological characteristics of Lindera are similar to those of Litsea
and are considered as a parallel evolution in Lauraceae.
, and species of this community are now found mostly on several separate areas of the Southern Hemisphere
, including South America
, Africa
, New Zealand
, Australia
and New Caledonia
. Because of the special lack of worldwide knowledge about the family lauraceae
in general, very little is known about their diversity. The species is found in forests that face threats of destruction by human deforestation
.
The lindera genus come from relict species living in a more warmer and humid climate conditions in continents and therefore, more distributed in the Tertiary. The main centers are found inhabiting wet forests or wet coastal temperate forest in low-altitude in cloud forest
habitat. Some species of genus have adapted to more extreme conditions but mostly depending on favorable soil edaphic conditions, as presence of aquifers, groundwater periodic flows, etc.
The patterns of speciation in the Lauraceae
family, where lindera genus belong, indicate that since the onset of aridification on the continents 15 million years ago, rainforest diversified in species numbers with the majority of species the product of vicariance
. One of the products of aridification is the current island like archipelagos of rainforests along the planet. The fragmentation of once more continuous rainforest facilitated isolation of populations and this likely caused the increase in the rate of speciation as found today. Lindera genus responded to favourable climatic periods and expanded across the available habitat. Before modern flood control was imposed along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, historic floods may have been an important mechanism in fruit and/or seed dispersal
over long distances or for creating suitable conditions for seedling establishment. Although the fruit of pondberry sinks in water after a short time, the seed with the pulp removed will float for a day or sometimes longer.
The lindera genus features are similar to other species no related, due to convergent evolution. Plants of laurel forests habitat, must adapt to high rainfall and humidity. Some species are adapted by developing leaves that repel water. Laurophyll or lauroide leaves are characterized by a generous layer of wax, making them glossy in appearance, and narrow, pointed oval in shape with an apical mucro, or 'drip tip', which permit the leaves to shed water despite the humidity, allowing perspiration and respiration from plant. Deciduous lindera lose all of their leaves
for part of the year depending on variations in rain
fall. In deciduous tropical lauraceae, leaf loss coincides with the dry season
in tropical, subtropical and arid regions. In temperate
or polar climate
s the dry season is due to the inability of the plant to absorb water available to it only in the form of ice.
Furthermore, it is common that the dispersal of seeds in many lauraceae species are due to birds that swallow them, so also the fruit and berries are often similar to attract birds. Birds, are important dispersal agents. The hermit thrush
swallows the whole fruit and later regurgitates the seed, indicating that it is an important seed disperser. Mammals may also be potential dispersers of genus seeds, including the raccoon (Procyon lotor) and opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Historically, in North America, the black bear (Ursus americanus) have been important to seed dispersal.
Some species of lindera genus are widespread relics of the laurisilva
forests that originally covered much of the Earth when the climate was more humid. Disappeared during the glaciations, some species re-colonize large areas when the weather was favorable again. With the drier and harsher of the climate during the Pliocene
era, the laurel forests gradually retreated, and were replaced by the more drought-tolerant sclerophyll
plant communities familiar today. Some species are stolon
iferous, and they did probably always been rare species since the onset of aridification on the continent. Knowledge of its ecology is limited.
The ecological requirements of the species, are those of the laurel forest
and like most of their counterparts laurifolia in the world, they are vigorous species with a great ability to populate the habitat that is conducive, but they are not so widespread geographically as in the past.
In warmer areas occurs in bottomland hardwood forests. Most to north are found on the bottoms and edges of shallow seasonal ponds in old dune fields, but in more dry areas they occurs in low habitat along a river. Sunlight at the different sites ranges from deep shade to almost full sun. Most Lindera colonies occur in light shade beneath a forest canopy, but a few grow in almost full sunlight. The genus appears to be able to occupy widely different habitats as long as its requirements for water are met.
Habitat fragmentation severely affects dioecious species like pondberry because populations with plants of a single sex can only vegetatively reproduce. With significant habitat loss, plants become ever more isolated, lessening the likelihood that pollinators will travel from male to female plants.
Bog spicebush, Lindera subcoriacea was first described in 1983 by Wofford. It is a shrub that grows to 4 m and has simple, alternate leaves. Male and female flowers occur on separate shrubs in early spring and the bright red drupes persist into fall. It typically occurs in boggy areas along streams with sphagnum moss, bay trees, and titi. It is sporadically distributed from Virginia to Louisiana and east to northern Florida. There are less than 100 occurrences most of which consist of only a few genetic individuals.
Currently bog spicebush is ranked G2/S1 with only two known Florida occurrences, one on Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County and the other on the campus of the University of West Florida in Escambia County.
Plants only vegetatively reproducing, are clones expanding vegetatively through stolons, and this mechanism of vegetative reproduction
is the principal way that colonies develop. Stems usually live 6 or 7 years, and when a stem dies it is usually replaced by a new stem that grows from the base of the plant. Thus, mature colonies often include some dead stems intermingled with numerous live stems.
In some colonies vegetatively reproducing, as in some pondberry colonies, despite the regular production of mature fruit, virtually no seedling
s have been observed at any of the known sites. The Sexual reproduction need male and female trees. This sexual reproduction is need for long-range dispersal and genetic diversity.
Lindera species are used as food plants by the larva
e of some Lepidoptera
species including The Engrailed
.
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s 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...
, mostly native to eastern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
but with three species in eastern North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The species are shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s and small tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s; common names include Spicewood, Spicebush, and Benjamin Bush.
Overview
They are dioeciousPlant sexuality
Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
, with male and female flowers on separate trees. They are aromatic 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...
or deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
trees or shrubs. Many botanical species are having similar foliage due to convergent evolution in wet lands. Some species are in danger of extinction due to over exploitation as medicinal plants or timber extraction and also for loss of habitat.
The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
can be either deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
or 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...
depending on species, and are alternate, entire or three-lobed, and strongly spicy-aromatic. Lindera species are no exception among the Lauraceae; Lindera genus have small flowers, hard to detect and collect and often overlooked or ignored when plants easier to collect or with showier flowers are at hand.
Lindera are woody perennial plants. Their leaves are opposite or alternate with three main veins. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
can be either deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
or 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...
depending on species, and are alternate, entire or three-lobed, and strongly spicy-aromatic.
The inflorescences are composed of 3 to 15 flowers existing pseudo-umbels. They are sessile or on short shoots.
The flowers are from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, yellowish, with star shape and six tepals. Male and female flowers commonly are on different plants. The flowers themselves are trifoliate or irregularly built, in separate sexes. Six equal-faceted bracts, but they may also be missing completely or decrease during the flowering season. The male flowers have nine to 15 fertile stamens, the innermost circle of stamens can be found at the base of the stamens glands. Usually the stamens are longer than the anthers, which in turn consist of two chambers and directed inwards or sideways. The vestigial ovary is very little or absent. The base of the flower is small and flat. The female flowers have a varying number of staminodes. The pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
is done by 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 and other insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s. The most striking are its fruits. The fruit has a small fruit cup, or is free on a thickened stem. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is a small red, purple or black drupe
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...
containing a single seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
, dispersed mostly by birds. Many species reproduce vegetatively by stolons. Species with strictest ecological requirements and resistant habits, which can survive in conditions that are not appropriate, such as lack of light due to competition with other species but occurring too across a gradient of canopy cover including full sun , intermediate shade, and full shade. Most populations have been observed under closed overstory canopies of bottomland forests, and consequently, considered a shade-tolerant species, occurs also along the margin of a seasonally flooded depressional wetland dominated by Nyssa sylvatica, and Taxodium ascendens, as also in the dense shade of Quercus laurifolia, Acer rubrum, and Liquidambar styraciflua, in the Aultman Forest; The genus grow too in herbaceous zone with little canopy cover adjacent to a cypress dome surrounded by pine plantations, and the other beneath a canopy of A. rubrum, N. sylvatica, and T. ascendens. The ecological characteristics of Lindera are similar to those of Litsea
Litsea
Litsea is a genus of evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes 200 to 400 species in tropical and subtropical areas of both hemispheres.-Overview:Trees or shrubs, dioecious...
and are considered as a parallel evolution in Lauraceae.
Ecology
A related vegetal community evolved millions of years ago on the supercontinent of GondwanaGondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
, and species of this community are now found mostly on several separate areas of the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
, including South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
. Because of the special lack of worldwide knowledge about 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...
in general, very little is known about their diversity. The species is found in forests that face threats of destruction by human deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
.
The lindera genus come from relict species living in a more warmer and humid climate conditions in continents and therefore, more distributed in the Tertiary. The main centers are found inhabiting wet forests or wet coastal temperate forest in low-altitude in cloud forest
Cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...
habitat. Some species of genus have adapted to more extreme conditions but mostly depending on favorable soil edaphic conditions, as presence of aquifers, groundwater periodic flows, etc.
The patterns of speciation in the 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...
family, where lindera genus belong, indicate that since the onset of aridification on the continents 15 million years ago, rainforest diversified in species numbers with the majority of species the product of vicariance
Vicariance
Vicariance is a process by which the geographical range of an individual taxon, or a whole biota, is split into discontinuous parts by the formation of a physical barrier to gene flow or dispersal. Vicariance of whole biotas occurs following large-scale geophysical events such as the uplift of a...
. One of the products of aridification is the current island like archipelagos of rainforests along the planet. The fragmentation of once more continuous rainforest facilitated isolation of populations and this likely caused the increase in the rate of speciation as found today. Lindera genus responded to favourable climatic periods and expanded across the available habitat. Before modern flood control was imposed along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, historic floods may have been an important mechanism in fruit and/or seed dispersal
Seed dispersal
Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant...
over long distances or for creating suitable conditions for seedling establishment. Although the fruit of pondberry sinks in water after a short time, the seed with the pulp removed will float for a day or sometimes longer.
The lindera genus features are similar to other species no related, due to convergent evolution. Plants of laurel forests habitat, must adapt to high rainfall and humidity. Some species are adapted by developing leaves that repel water. Laurophyll or lauroide leaves are characterized by a generous layer of wax, making them glossy in appearance, and narrow, pointed oval in shape with an apical mucro, or 'drip tip', which permit the leaves to shed water despite the humidity, allowing perspiration and respiration from plant. Deciduous lindera lose all of their leaves
Leaves
-History:Vocalist Arnar Gudjonsson was formerly the guitarist with Mower, and he was joined by Hallur Hallsson , Arnar Ólafsson , Bjarni Grímsson , and Andri Ásgrímsson . Late in 2001 they played with Emiliana Torrini and drew early praise from the New York Times...
for part of the year depending on variations in rain
Rain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
fall. In deciduous tropical lauraceae, leaf loss coincides with the dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
in tropical, subtropical and arid regions. In temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
or polar climate
Polar climate
Regions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers . Regions with polar climate cover over 20% of the Earth. The sun shines 24 hours in the summer, and barely ever shines at all in the winter...
s the dry season is due to the inability of the plant to absorb water available to it only in the form of ice.
Furthermore, it is common that the dispersal of seeds in many lauraceae species are due to birds that swallow them, so also the fruit and berries are often similar to attract birds. Birds, are important dispersal agents. The hermit thrush
Hermit Thrush
The Hermit Thrush is a medium-sized North American thrush. It is not very closely related to the other North American migrant species of Catharus, but rather to the Mexican Russet Nightingale-thrush.-Description:...
swallows the whole fruit and later regurgitates the seed, indicating that it is an important seed disperser. Mammals may also be potential dispersers of genus seeds, including the raccoon (Procyon lotor) and opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Historically, in North America, the black bear (Ursus americanus) have been important to seed dispersal.
Some species of lindera genus are widespread relics of the laurisilva
Laurisilva
Laurisilva or laurissilva is a subtropical forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterised by evergreen, glossy-leaved tree species that look alike with leaves of lauroide type...
forests that originally covered much of the Earth when the climate was more humid. Disappeared during the glaciations, some species re-colonize large areas when the weather was favorable again. With the drier and harsher of the climate during the Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
era, the laurel forests gradually retreated, and were replaced by the more drought-tolerant sclerophyll
Sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is the term for a type of vegetation that has hard leaves and short internodes . The word comes from the Greek sclero and phyllon ....
plant communities familiar today. Some species are stolon
Stolon
In biology, stolons are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external skeletons.-In botany:...
iferous, and they did probably always been rare species since the onset of aridification on the continent. Knowledge of its ecology is limited.
The ecological requirements of the species, are those of the laurel forest
Laurel forest
Laurel forest is a subtropical or mild temperate forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterized by tree species with evergreen, glossy, enlongated leaves, known as laurophyll or lauroide...
and like most of their counterparts laurifolia in the world, they are vigorous species with a great ability to populate the habitat that is conducive, but they are not so widespread geographically as in the past.
In warmer areas occurs in bottomland hardwood forests. Most to north are found on the bottoms and edges of shallow seasonal ponds in old dune fields, but in more dry areas they occurs in low habitat along a river. Sunlight at the different sites ranges from deep shade to almost full sun. Most Lindera colonies occur in light shade beneath a forest canopy, but a few grow in almost full sunlight. The genus appears to be able to occupy widely different habitats as long as its requirements for water are met.
Habitat fragmentation severely affects dioecious species like pondberry because populations with plants of a single sex can only vegetatively reproduce. With significant habitat loss, plants become ever more isolated, lessening the likelihood that pollinators will travel from male to female plants.
Bog spicebush, Lindera subcoriacea was first described in 1983 by Wofford. It is a shrub that grows to 4 m and has simple, alternate leaves. Male and female flowers occur on separate shrubs in early spring and the bright red drupes persist into fall. It typically occurs in boggy areas along streams with sphagnum moss, bay trees, and titi. It is sporadically distributed from Virginia to Louisiana and east to northern Florida. There are less than 100 occurrences most of which consist of only a few genetic individuals.
Currently bog spicebush is ranked G2/S1 with only two known Florida occurrences, one on Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County and the other on the campus of the University of West Florida in Escambia County.
Plants only vegetatively reproducing, are clones expanding vegetatively through stolons, and this mechanism of vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
is the principal way that colonies develop. Stems usually live 6 or 7 years, and when a stem dies it is usually replaced by a new stem that grows from the base of the plant. Thus, mature colonies often include some dead stems intermingled with numerous live stems.
In some colonies vegetatively reproducing, as in some pondberry colonies, despite the regular production of mature fruit, virtually no seedling
Seedling
thumb|Monocot and dicot seedlingsA seedling is a young plant sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle , the hypocotyl , and the cotyledons...
s have been observed at any of the known sites. The Sexual reproduction need male and female trees. This sexual reproduction is need for long-range dispersal and genetic diversity.
Lindera species are used as food plants by the larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
species including The Engrailed
Engrailed
The Engrailed and Small Engrailed are moths of the family Geometridae. They are distributed across most of Europe. There is an on-going debate as to whether they make up one species, or whether E. crepuscularia actually refers only to the Small Engrailed, with the Engrailed proper being separable...
.
Species
Selected species
|
Lindera melissifolia Lindera melissifolia, common name Pondberry or Southern Spicebush, is a stoloniferous, deciduous, aromatic shrub in the laurel family. This endangered species is native to the southeastern United States, and its demise is associated with habitat loss from extensive drainage of wetlands for... - Southern Spicebush Lindera obtusiloba Lindera obtusiloba is a species of flowering plant in the Lauraceae family. Juvenile leaves are lobed and are deep purple, turning yellow in autumn.Uses=... |