Aiouea
Encyclopedia
Aiouea is a botanical genus of plant
s in the family of the Lauraceae
endemic of Central America
and South America
. Genus Aiouea is distributed from southern Mexico to southern Brazil and Paraguay. Aiouea is closely related with Mocinnodaphne
, Cinnamomum
, Nectandra
, Ocotea
, Oreodaphne
, and Umbellularia
.
, in the Andean mountain cloud forest
, this trees sometimes are called Mountain laurels. They grow also in evergreen lowlands tropical laurel forests. They does not form large stands but rather small groups of trees with a density of up to one individual per five hectares.
The ecological requirements of the genus, are those of fog moisture precipitating almost continuously in a natural habitat cloud-covered for much of the year. These genus species are found in tropical forests, subtropical temperate evergreen, montane evergreen forests, which is a type of rainforest
or Cloud Forest
. An ecosystem
of great exuberance characterized by high humidity, no seasonal changes and with a wide variety of botanical and zoological species but also highly fragile against external aggressions. The temperate evergreen and evergreen forests are typically multispecies with evergreen and hardwood trees, reaching up to 40 meters in height. The forests are made up of laurel-leaved evergreen
hardwood
tree
s, harbouring a rich biota
of understorey plants, invertebrate
s, bird
s and mammalians.
In Andes and other mountain areas is present in cool temperate zones in montane tropical and subtropical montane rainforest, Aiouea require continuously moist soil, and do not tolerate drought.
The laurel trees falls within the broad-leaved forests; mid-montane deciduous forests; and high-montane mixed stunted forests. Some species growing to high altitude forests at 1500–3300 m (4,921.3–10,826.8 ). The upper limit of forests ranges from 3000 metre.
The most known trees are used by the timber industry. The fruit, a berry, is an important food source for birds. In some species the seed dispersal
is carried out by monkey
s, chipmunk
s, or fish
es.
in family Lauraceae
has about 20-60 species.
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s in the family of 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...
endemic of 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 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...
. Genus Aiouea is distributed from southern Mexico to southern Brazil and Paraguay. Aiouea is closely related with Mocinnodaphne
Mocinnodaphne
Mocinnodaphne is a neotropical genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. The genus includes one or more species of evergreen trees, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of North America and Central America: California, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua,...
, Cinnamomum
Cinnamomum
Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark. The genus contains over 300 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of North America, Central America,...
, 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...
, Ocotea
Ocotea
Ocotea is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. The genus includes over 200 species of evergreen trees and shrubs, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, the West Indies, also with a few species in Africa and Madagascar, and...
, Oreodaphne
Oreodaphne
Oreodaphne is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. The genus includes five species of evergreen trees, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Mauritius, California, Sudafrica and Macaronesian archipelagos. Oreodaphne is related with Ocotea...
, and Umbellularia
Umbellularia
Umbellularia californica is a large tree native to coastal forests of California and slightly extended into Oregon.It is the sole species in the genus Umbellularia....
.
Characteristics
They are evergreen hermaphrodite trees or rarely shrubs with leathery leaves of lauroide type. The flowers are in panicles axillary or subterminal, lax. The flowers are bisexual and small, with obconica floral tube, cylindrical or campanulate, six tepals equals, the tube and the base of the tepals hairy inside; fertile stamens 9, 6 or 3, anthers bivalve stamens of I and II whorls eglandular, anthers introrsas, the glands of the third whorl with basal extrorse anthers, those of the fourth whorl staminodes, triangular or ovoid ovary globose, glabrous, included in the floral tube, cylindrical style, stigma discoid. The berry is an ellipsoid dome with basal woody pedicels continuous with the capsule thickened. The berry have a single seed dispersed mostly by birds.Ecology
They Grow in low evergreen tropical forest in Amazon region but also in tropical mountain cloud forest. Species in less humid environment are smaller or less robust, with less abundant and thinner foliage and have oleifera cells that give trees a more fragrant aroma. Aiouea is present in tropical and subtropical montane rainforest, laurel forestLaurel 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...
, in the Andean mountain 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...
, this trees sometimes are called Mountain laurels. They grow also in evergreen lowlands tropical laurel forests. They does not form large stands but rather small groups of trees with a density of up to one individual per five hectares.
The ecological requirements of the genus, are those of fog moisture precipitating almost continuously in a natural habitat cloud-covered for much of the year. These genus species are found in tropical forests, subtropical temperate evergreen, montane evergreen forests, which is a type of rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
or 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...
. An ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
of great exuberance characterized by high humidity, no seasonal changes and with a wide variety of botanical and zoological species but also highly fragile against external aggressions. The temperate evergreen and evergreen forests are typically multispecies with evergreen and hardwood trees, reaching up to 40 meters in height. The forests are made up of laurel-leaved 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...
hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
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, harbouring a rich biota
Biota (ecology)
Biota are the total collection of organisms of a geographic region or a time period, from local geographic scales and instantaneous temporal scales all the way up to whole-planet and whole-timescale spatiotemporal scales. The biota of the Earth lives in the biosphere.-See...
of understorey plants, invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s, bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s and mammalians.
In Andes and other mountain areas is present in cool temperate zones in montane tropical and subtropical montane rainforest, Aiouea require continuously moist soil, and do not tolerate drought.
The laurel trees falls within the broad-leaved forests; mid-montane deciduous forests; and high-montane mixed stunted forests. Some species growing to high altitude forests at 1500–3300 m (4,921.3–10,826.8 ). The upper limit of forests ranges from 3000 metre.
The most known trees are used by the timber industry. The fruit, a berry, is an important food source for birds. 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, 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.
Species selected
This genus of plantPlant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
in 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...
has about 20-60 species.
- Aiouea acarodomatiferaAiouea acarodomatiferaAiouea acarodomatifera is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is endemic to Brazil.-Source:* Pedralli, G. 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, Kostermans - Aiouea angulataAiouea angulataAiouea angulata is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is endemic to Colombia.-References:* Calderon, E. 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, Kosterm. - Aiouea barbellata Kosterm., 1938
- Aiouea benthamianaAiouea benthamianaAiouea benthamiana is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela.-References:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, MezMez- People :* Mez , stage name of Joshua Jerimiah Gomes, Trinidadian born Canadian recording artist, record producer, songwriter.* Internet Artist Mez Breeze Mez Breeze is an Australian-based artist who works with net.art... - Aiouea bracteataAiouea bracteataAiouea bracteata is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is endemic to Brazil.-References:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, Kosterm., 1938 - Aiouea brasiliensis Meisn., 1864
- Aiouea chapadensis, Kosterm., 1938
- Aiouea dubia (H.B.K.) Mez., in the Andean forests of Loja Zamora-Chinchipe in Ecuador
- Aiouea elliptica Meisn.
- Aiouea lehmanniiAiouea lehmanniiAiouea lehmannii is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is found in Brazil and Colombia.-References:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, (O.C.Schmidt) Renner - Aiouea macedoanaAiouea macedoanaAiouea macedoana is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family. It is endemic to Brazil.-References:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, Vattimo 1967 - Aiouea minutiflora, Coe Teixeira 1970
- Aiouea mocambensis, Coe Teixeira 1970
- Aiouea multiflora, coe Teixeira 1970
- Aiouea obscuraAiouea obscuraAiouea obscura is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family endemic to Costa Rica.-References:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, van der Werff - Aiouea rondoni, Samp. 1917
- Aiouea scandens, Ducke 1930
- Aiouea truxillensis Kosterm., 1938
- Aiouea vexatrix van der Werff, 1988
- Aiouea warmingii Mez, 1889