Ungeria
Watercolour illustration by John Doody of Ungeria floribunda
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Subfamily: Helicteroideae
Genus: Ungeria
Schott & Endl.
Species:
U. floribunda
Binomial name
Ungeria floribunda
Schott & Endl.

Ungeria is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Malvaceae. It just contains one species, Ungeria floribunda Schott & Endl.[1] It is also in the Helicteroideae subfamily and Helictereae tribe.[2]

Its native range is Norfolk Island (in the Pacific Ocean near Australia).[1] It is found in Mount Pitt Nature Reserve (part of Norfolk Island National Park).[3]

Description

It is a tree that can grow up to 15 m (49 ft) tall.[4] It has leaves which are broadly elliptic or obovate and evergreen.[5] The leaf blades are about 6–12 cm (2–5 in) long and 4–8 cm (2–3 in) wide.[3] It has deep pink flowers.[5] The flowers each have five deep pink petals 16–20 mm (1–1 in) long and it thought to be pollinated by birds. The fruits are 5 lobed and star-shaped in cross-section.[3]

Moths of Austrocarea iocephala subspecies millsi can be found on the tree.[6]

It is related (dna wise) to the Durian.[3]

Taxonomy

It has the common name of 'Bastard Oak', (due to the inferior quality of the timber,[3]) was listed as Vulnerable in 2003 on Norfolk Island.[7] 502 plants were counted in 2003.[3]

The genus name of Ungeria is in honour of Franz Unger (1800–1870), an Austrian botanist, paleontologist and plant physiologist.[8] The Latin specific epithet of floribunda means "many-flowering", (such as Floribunda).[9] Both the genus and sole species were first described and published in Meletemata Botanica (Melet. Bot.) on page 27 in 1832.[1] The genus is recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service, but they do not list any known species.[2]

Culture

On 14 January 2020, an image of Ungeria floribunda was used on a postage stamp for Australia, one of two 'Norfolk Island Early Botanical Art' stamps.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Ungeria Schott & Endl. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Genus Ungeria Schott & Endl". npgsweb.ars-grin.gov. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Peter Coyne Norfolk Island's Fascinating Flora (2011), p. 84, at Google Books
  4. 1 2 "stamp Ungeria floribunda 2020". www.anbg.gov.au. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  5. 1 2 Australian Government Pub. Service, 1982 Flora of Australia, Volume 49, p. 108, at Google Books
  6. ↑ J.D. Holloway Lepidoptera of Norfolk Island. Their Biogeography and Ecology (1977), p. 77, at Google Books
  7. ↑ "Ungeria floribunda — Bastard Oak". Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  8. ↑ Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  9. ↑ Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 184533731X.
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