Persea
Encyclopedia
Persea is a genus
of about 150 species of evergreen
trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae
. The best-known member of the genus is the avocado
, P. americana, widely cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible fruit
.
are simple, lanceolate to broad lanceolate, varying with species from 5-30 cm long and 2-12 cm broad, and arranged spirally or alternately on the stems. The flower
s are in short panicles, with six small greenish-yellow perianth segments 3-6 mm long, nine stamens and an ovary with a single embryo. The fruit
is an oval or pear-shaped drupe
, with a fleshy outer covering surrounding the single seed
; size is very variable between the species, from 1-1.5 cm in e.g. P. borbonia and P. indica, up to 10-20 cm in P. americana.
and Chile
in South America
to Central America
and Mexico
, the Caribbean
, and the southeastern United States
; a single species, P. indica, endemic to the Macaronesia
n islands, including Madeira
and the Canary Islands
; and 80 species inhabiting east
and southeast
Asia
. None of the species is very tolerant of severe winter cold, with the hardiest, P. borbonia, P. ichangensis and P. lingue, surviving temperatures down to about -12°C; they also require continuously moist soil, and do not tolerate drought. A number of these species are found in forests that face threats of destruction or deforestation
; for example, P. meyeniana occurs in Central Chile, where historic and ongoing deforestation has reduced the habitat of the endangered Chilean Wine Palm
and forest system as a whole.
The Family Lauraceae
was part of Gondwana
land flora and many genera also, migrated to South America via Antarctica in ocean landbridges by Paleocene time.
There they spread over most of the continent. When the north American and south American tectonic plates joined in late Neogene, volcanic mountain building created island chains which later formed the meso-American landbridge. Pliocene elevation created new habitats for speciation. While some genera died out in increasingly xerophytic Africa, starting with the freezing of Antarctica about 20 million years ago and the formation of the Benguela current, others, like Beilschmiedia
, and Nectandra
, which also reached south and meso-America, are still surviving today in Africa in a number of species. The genus Persea, however, died out in Africa, except for Persea indica
, surviving in the fog shrouded mountains of the Canary Islands, which with Madagascar constitutes Africa's Laurel forest
plant refugia.
Fossil evidence indicates that the genus originated in West Africa
during the Paleocene
, and spread to Asia, to South America, and to Europe and thence to North America
. It is thought that the gradual drying of Africa, west Asia, and the Mediterranean from the Oligocene
to the Pleistocene
, and the glaciation of Europe
during the Pleistocene, caused the extinction of the genus across these regions, resulting in the present distribution.
Since this habitat is constantly threatened by encroching agriculture, the laurel forest animal or vegetal species had already become rare in many of its former habitats and are threatened by habitat loss.
The fruit in species of persea genus is a berry. This berries varied in shape and size, they are an important food source for birds, usually this birds are from specialized genus: Cotingidae, Columbidae, Rhamphastidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, etc. Birds eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, expanding the seeds in the best conditions for germination (ornitochory
). In some species the seed dispersal
is carried out by monkey
s, chipmunk
s, porcupine
s, Opossums or fish
es.
In meso-America, the genus Persea proliferated into many new species and the berries of some of them constitute a valuable food supply for the quetzal
, that lives in the montane rainforests of meso-America.
The quetzal favorite fruits are berries of relatives of the avocado
family. Their differing maturing times in the cloudforest determine the migratory movements of the quetzals to differing elevation levels in the forests. With a gape width of 21 mm, the quetzal swallows the small berry (aquacatillo) whole, which he catches while flying through the lower canopy of the tree, and then regurgitates the seed within 100 meters from the tree. Wheelright in 1983 observed that parent quetzals take far less time intervals to deliver fruits to the young brood than insects or lizards, reflecting the ease of procuring fruits, as opposed to capturing animal prey. Since the young are fed exclusively berries in the first 2 weeks after hatching, these berries must be of high nutritional value. Usually only the total percentage of water, sugar, nitrogen, crude fats and carbohydrates are reported by ornithologists
Persea species are used as food plants by the larva
e of some Lepidoptera
species including Giant Leopard Moth
, Coleophora octagonella
(feeds exclusively on P. carolinensis) and Hypercompe indecisa
.
is treated in a separate genus Machilus by many authors, including in the Flora of China, while graft-incompatibility between subgenus Persea and subgenus Eriodaphne suggests that these too may be better treated as distinct genera, in fact Kostermans
(1993) founded the genus Mutisiopersea for these. Another closely related genus, Beilschmiedia
, is also sometimes included in Persea.
Subgenus Persea - Central America
. Two species.
Subgenus Eriodaphne (Mutisiopersea) - The Americas, Macaronesia
. About 70 species, including:
Subgenus Machilus - Asia
. About 80 species, including:
name Περσεα. It was applied by Theophrastus
and Hippocrates
to an uncertain Egyptian tree, possibly Cordia myxa
or a Mimusops
species.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of about 150 species of 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...
trees belonging to the laurel 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...
. The best-known member of the genus is the avocado
Avocado
The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
, P. americana, widely cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible 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,...
.
Overview
They are medium-size trees, 15-30 m tall at maturity. The leavesLeaf
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....
are simple, lanceolate to broad lanceolate, varying with species from 5-30 cm long and 2-12 cm broad, and arranged spirally or alternately on the stems. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are in short panicles, with six small greenish-yellow perianth segments 3-6 mm long, nine stamens and an ovary with a single embryo. 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 an oval or pear-shaped 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...
, with a fleshy outer covering surrounding the 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...
; size is very variable between the species, from 1-1.5 cm in e.g. P. borbonia and P. indica, up to 10-20 cm in P. americana.
Distribution and ecology
The species of Persea have a disjunct distribution, with about 70 Neotropic species, ranging from BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and 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...
in 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...
to Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, and the southeastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; a single species, P. indica, endemic to the Macaronesia
Macaronesia
Macaronesia is a modern collective name for several groups of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa belonging to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde...
n islands, including Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
; and 80 species inhabiting east
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
and southeast
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
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...
. None of the species is very tolerant of severe winter cold, with the hardiest, P. borbonia, P. ichangensis and P. lingue, surviving temperatures down to about -12°C; they also require continuously moist soil, and do not tolerate drought. A number of these species are found in forests that face threats of destruction or 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....
; for example, P. meyeniana occurs in Central Chile, where historic and ongoing deforestation has reduced the habitat of the endangered Chilean Wine Palm
Jubaea
Jubaea chilensis is the sole extant species in the genus Jubaea in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to southwestern South America, where it is endemic to a small area of central Chile, between 32°S and 35°S in southern Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and northern Maule regions...
and forest system as a whole.
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...
was part of Gondwana
Gondwana
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,...
land flora and many genera also, migrated to South America via Antarctica in ocean landbridges by Paleocene time.
There they spread over most of the continent. When the north American and south American tectonic plates joined in late Neogene, volcanic mountain building created island chains which later formed the meso-American landbridge. Pliocene elevation created new habitats for speciation. While some genera died out in increasingly xerophytic Africa, starting with the freezing of Antarctica about 20 million years ago and the formation of the Benguela current, others, like Beilschmiedia
Beilschmiedia
Beilschmiedia is a genus of trees and shrubs in family Lauraceae. Most of its species grow in tropical climates, but a few of them are native to temperate regions, and they are widespread in tropical Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Central America, the Caribbean,...
, and Nectandra
Nectandra
Nectandra is a genus of plant in family Lauraceae.-Overview:Plants from this genus have been used in the treatment of several clinical disorders in humans. It has been demonstrated that Nectandra plants have potential analgesic, antiinflammatory, febrifuge, energetic and hypotensive activities...
, which also reached south and meso-America, are still surviving today in Africa in a number of species. The genus Persea, however, died out in Africa, except for Persea indica
Persea indica
Persea indica is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family.It is found in the Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands in Macaronesia. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Overview:...
, surviving in the fog shrouded mountains of the Canary Islands, which with Madagascar constitutes Africa's 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...
plant refugia.
Fossil evidence indicates that the genus originated in West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
during the Paleocene
Paleocene
The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...
, and spread to Asia, to South America, and to Europe and thence to 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...
. It is thought that the gradual drying of Africa, west Asia, and the Mediterranean from the Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
to the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
, and the glaciation of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
during the Pleistocene, caused the extinction of the genus across these regions, resulting in the present distribution.
Since this habitat is constantly threatened by encroching agriculture, the laurel forest animal or vegetal species had already become rare in many of its former habitats and are threatened by habitat loss.
The fruit in species of persea genus is a berry. This berries varied in shape and size, they are an important food source for birds, usually this birds are from specialized genus: Cotingidae, Columbidae, Rhamphastidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, etc. Birds eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, expanding the seeds in the best conditions for germination (ornitochory
Biological dispersal
Biological dispersal refers to species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population...
). In some species the 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...
is carried out by monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
s, chipmunk
Chipmunk
Chipmunks are small striped squirrels native to North America and Asia. They are usually classed either as a single genus with three subgenera, or as three genera.-Etymology and taxonomy:...
s, porcupine
Porcupine
Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend or camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa. Porcupines are the third largest of the rodents, behind the capybara and the beaver. Most porcupines are about long, with...
s, Opossums or fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
es.
In meso-America, the genus Persea proliferated into many new species and the berries of some of them constitute a valuable food supply for the quetzal
Quetzal
Quetzals are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family . They are found in forests and woodlands, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus Pharomachrus being exclusively Neotropical, while the single Euptilotis species is almost entirely restricted to western Mexico...
, that lives in the montane rainforests of meso-America.
The quetzal favorite fruits are berries of relatives of the avocado
Avocado
The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
family. Their differing maturing times in the cloudforest determine the migratory movements of the quetzals to differing elevation levels in the forests. With a gape width of 21 mm, the quetzal swallows the small berry (aquacatillo) whole, which he catches while flying through the lower canopy of the tree, and then regurgitates the seed within 100 meters from the tree. Wheelright in 1983 observed that parent quetzals take far less time intervals to deliver fruits to the young brood than insects or lizards, reflecting the ease of procuring fruits, as opposed to capturing animal prey. Since the young are fed exclusively berries in the first 2 weeks after hatching, these berries must be of high nutritional value. Usually only the total percentage of water, sugar, nitrogen, crude fats and carbohydrates are reported by ornithologists
Persea 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 Giant Leopard Moth
Giant Leopard Moth
The Giant Leopard Moth or Eyed Tiger Moth is a moth of the family Arctiidae. It is distributed throughout the Southern and Eastern United States from New England to Mexico. The obsolete name Ecpantheria scribonia is still occasionally encountered.This species has a wingspan of 3 inches...
, Coleophora octagonella
Coleophora
Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions...
(feeds exclusively on P. carolinensis) and Hypercompe indecisa
Hypercompe
Hypercompe is a genus of moths of the family Arctiidae. There are over 80 species found throughout the Americas. Several species were formerly separated in Ecpantheria which is now regarded as a junior synonym. They are typically large moths with white forewings heavily spotted with black, and...
.
Classification
The genus Persea is treated in three subgenera. The Asian subgenus MachilusMachilus
Machilus is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Is distributed in temperate, tropical and subtropical Asia. Machilus genus include currently more than 100 species, mostly in laurel forest habitat.-Overview:...
is treated in a separate genus Machilus by many authors, including in the Flora of China, while graft-incompatibility between subgenus Persea and subgenus Eriodaphne suggests that these too may be better treated as distinct genera, in fact Kostermans
André Joseph Guillaume Henri Kostermans
Dr. André Joseph Guillaume Henri 'Doc' Kostermans was a botanist. He was born in Purworejo, Java, Dutch East Indies, and educated at Utrecht University, taking his doctoral degree in 1936 with a paper on Surinamese Lauraceae.He spent most of his professional life studying the plants of...
(1993) founded the genus Mutisiopersea for these. Another closely related genus, Beilschmiedia
Beilschmiedia
Beilschmiedia is a genus of trees and shrubs in family Lauraceae. Most of its species grow in tropical climates, but a few of them are native to temperate regions, and they are widespread in tropical Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Central America, the Caribbean,...
, is also sometimes included in Persea.
Subgenus Persea - Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. Two species.
- Persea americanaAvocadoThe avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
Mill. – Avocado- Persea americana var. drymifolia (Schltdl. & Cham.) S.F.Blake
- Persea americana var. floccosa (Mez) Scora
- Persea americana var. guatemalensis (L.O.Williams) Scora
- Persea americana var. nubigena (L.O.Williams) L.E.Kopp
- Persea americana var. steyermarkii (C.K.Allen) Scora
- Persea schiedeanaPersea schiedeanaCoyo is a wild tree resembling and closely related to the Avocado . It is classified within the flowering plant family, Lauraceae. It is native to certain areas of Mexico and Panama at altitudes between 1,400 m to 1,900 m. The tree grows to about 20 m high, occasionally reaching 50 m.Young...
Nees – Coyo
Subgenus Eriodaphne (Mutisiopersea) - The Americas, Macaronesia
Macaronesia
Macaronesia is a modern collective name for several groups of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa belonging to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde...
. About 70 species, including:
- Persea alpigena
- Persea borboniaPersea borboniaPersea borbonia has a variety of common names, among them are redbay, scrubbay, shorebay and swampbay. It is related to Persea americana or the avocado tree. It is an evergreen tree that is native to North America, north of Mexico.-Description:...
(L.) Spreng. – Redbay - Persea caerulea (Ruiz & Pav.) Mez
- Persea cinerascens
- Persea donnell-smithii Mez
- Persea indicaPersea indicaPersea indica is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family.It is found in the Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands in Macaronesia. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Overview:...
(L.) Spreng. – Viñátigo (possibly better treated in a fourth subgenus of its own) - Persea linguePersea linguePersea lingue is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is found in Argentina and Chile. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Use:In pharmacy its bark was once mentioned as cortex Lauri lingue , medicinal action unknown.-Etymology:...
(Ruiz & Pav.) Nees – Lingue - Persea longipes (Schltdl.) Meisn.
- Persea meyenianaPersea meyenianaPersea meyeniana is a species of evergreen tree belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. This species is found in some forests of central Chile that face threats of destruction or deforestation; for example, P...
Nees - Persea palustrisPersea palustrisPersea palustris, commonly known as the swampbay, is a tree native to eastern North America, from Texas eastwards to Florida and then extending north to Delaware, mostly on the Gulf Coastal Plain and Atlantic Coastal Plain but extending into the Piedmont somewhat. Its range also includes the...
(Raf.) Sarg. – Swampbay - Persea skutchii
Subgenus Machilus - 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...
. About 80 species, including:
- Persea edulis
- Persea ichangensis
- Persea japonica (Siebold & Zucc.) Kosterm.
- Persea kobu
- Persea macrantha
- Persea nanmu Oliv.
- Persea thunbergii (Siebold & Zucc.) Kosterm.
- Persea yunnanensis
Formerly placed here
- Cinnamodendron cinnamomifolium (Kunth) Kosterm. (as P. cinnamomifolia Kunth or P. mexicana (Meisn.) Hemsl.)
- Laurus azoricaLaurus azoricaLaurus azorica is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family, related to laurus nobilis. It is a member of the genus Laurus and is commonly known as Azores Laurel. Laurus is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae...
(Seub.) Franco (as P. azorica Seub.)
Etymology
Philip Miller derived Persea from the GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
name Περσεα. It was applied by Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
and Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
to an uncertain Egyptian tree, possibly Cordia myxa
Cordia myxa
Cordia myxa is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It is a medium-sized broad-leaved deciduous tree. Common names include لسوڑا, Lasura, Assyrian Plum, Pidar, Panugeri, Naruvilli, Geduri, Spistan, and Burgund dulu wanan...
or a Mimusops
Mimusops
Mimusops is a genus of plant in family Sapotaceae.Species include:* Mimusops acutifolia, Mildbr.* Mimusops angel, Chiov.* Mimusops commersonii* Mimusops caffra* Mimusops elengi...
species.
External links
- Avocado source Extensive information on the AvocadoAvocadoThe avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
and the genus generally, particularly the subgenera Persea and Eriodaphne - Flora of North America: Persea
- Flora of China: Machilus Full list of species in Machilus in China