Persea
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Persea
Persea borbonia foliage and fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Magnoliids
Order: Laurales
Family: Lauraceae
Genus: Persea
Mill.[1]
Species
See text. Complete list
Synonyms
Machilus Nees (possible synonym)
Mutisiopersea Kosterm.
Tamala Raf.[1]
Persea is a genus of about 150 species of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel
family, Lauraceae.[2] The best-known member of the genus is the avocado, P. americana, widely
cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible fruit.
Contents
[hide]
1Overview
2Distribution and ecology
o 2.1Classification
o 2.2Formerly placed here
3Etymology
4Line notes
5References
6External links
Overview[edit]
They are medium-size trees, 15–30 m (49.2–98.4 ft) tall at maturity. The leaves are simple,
lanceolate to broad lanceolate, varying with species from 5–30 cm (1.97–11.81 in) long and 2–12 cm
(0.79–4.72 in) broad, and arranged spirally or alternately on the stems. The flowers are in short
panicles, with six small greenish-yellow perianth segments 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) 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
(0.39–0.59 inches) in e.g. P. borbonia and P. indica, up to 10–20 cm (3.94–7.87 inches) in P.
americana.
Distribution and ecology[edit]
Persea americana flowers
The species of Persea have a disjunct distribution, with about 70 Neotropic species, ranging
from Brazil 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 Macaronesian islands, in the
North West coast of Africa area, including Madeira and the Canary Islands; and 80 species
inhabiting east and southeastAsia. None of the species are very tolerant of severe winter cold, with
the hardiest, P. borbonia, P. ichangensis and P. lingue, surviving temperatures down to about
−12 °C (10.4 °F); 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 in Central Chile.
The family Lauraceae was part of the land flora of Gondwana, and many genera had migrated to
South America via Antarctica over ocean landbridges by the time of the Paleocene. From South
America they spread over most of the continent. When the North American and South American
tectonic plates joined in the late Neogene, volcanic mountain building created island chains which
later formed the Mesoamerican landbridge. Pliocene elevation created new habitats for speciation.
While some genera died out in increasingly xerophytic mainland Africa, starting with the freezing of
Antarctica about 20 million years ago and the formation of the Benguela current, others, which also
reached South America and Mesoamerica, such as Beilschmiedia and Nectandra are still surviving
today in Africa in a number of species. The genus, however, died out in Africa, except for P. indica,
which is, today, a threatened species that survives in the fog-shrouded mountains of the Canary
Islands.
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 encroaching agriculture, the laurel forest animal or
vegetal species have already become rare in many of its former habitats and are threatened by
further habitat loss.
In Mesoamerica, Persea proliferated into many new species, and the berries of some of them
constitute a valuable food supply for quetzals, trogoniform birds that live in the montane rainforests
of Mesoamerica. In particular, the resplendent quetzal's favorite fruits are berries of wild relatives of
the avocado. 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 (0.83 in), 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 (328 ft) 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.[3]
Persea species are also used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species
including giant leopard moth, Coleophora octagonella (which feeds exclusively on P. carolinensis)
and Hypercompe indecisa.
Persea macrantha leaves
Classification[edit]
The avocado fruit, Persea americana
The genus Persea is treated in three subgenera. The Asian subgenus Machilus 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.
Persea americana 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 schiedeana Nees – Coyo
Subgenus Eriodaphne (Mutisiopersea) — The Americas, Macaronesia. About 70 species,
including
Persea alpigena
Persea brevipetiolata van der Werff from Mexico
Persea borbonia (L.) Spreng. – Redbay
Persea caerulea (Ruiz & Pav.) Mez
Persea cinerascens
Persea donnell-smithii Mez
Persea indica (L.) Spreng. – Viñátigo (possibly better treated in a fourth subgenus of its own)
Persea lingue (Ruiz & Pav.) Nees – Lingue
Persea longipes (Schltdl.) Meisn.
Persea meyeniana Nees
Persea palustris (Raf.) Sarg. – Swampbay
Persea skutchii
Subgenus Machilus — Asia. 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[4]
Formerly placed here[edit]
Cinnamodendron cinnamomifolium (Kunth) Kosterm. (as P. cinnamomifolia Kunth or P.
mexicana (Meisn.) Hemsl.)
Laurus azorica (Seub.) Franco (as P. azorica Seub.)[4]
Etymology[edit]
Philip Miller derived Persea from the Greek name Περσέα. It was applied
by Theophrastus and Hippocrates to an uncertain Egyptian tree, possibly Cordia myxa or
a Mimusops species.[5]
Line notes[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b "Genus: Persea Mill.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States
Department of Agriculture. 2007-10-05. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
2. Jump up^ André Joseph Guillaume Henri Kostermans. 1993
3. Jump up^ http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_83_1999/CAS_1999_PG_163-
171.pdf
4. ^ Jump up to:a b "GRIN Species Records of Persea". Germplasm Resources Information Network.
United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
5. Jump up^ Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names. 3 M-Q. CRC Press.
p. 2015. ISBN 978-0-8493-2677-6.
References[edit]
André Joseph Guillaume Henri Kostermans. 1993. Mutisiopersea Kostermans, a new genus in
Lauraceae. Rheedea 3: 132–135.
C. Michael Hogan. 2008. Chilean Wine Palm: Jubaea chilensis, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas
Stromberg
Lucille E. Kopp. 1966. "A taxonomic revision of the genus Persea in the Western Hemisphere
(Persea-Lauracese)" Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 14(1): pp. 1–117
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Persea.
Wikispecies has
information related
to: Persea
Avocado source Extensive information on the Avocado 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
Categories:
Persea
Laurales genera
Sumber : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persea#Classification
