There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus,[2] distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas (around 300 species)[3] including the Caribbean and West Indies,[4][5] but also with some species in Africa, Madagascar[3] and the Mascarene Islands.[6] One species (O. foetens) is native to the Macaronesia (in Canary Islands and Madeira).[7] The genus is suspected to be paraphyletic.[8]
Description
O. tenera leaves and fruit
They are trees or shrubs, occasionally with adventitious roots (O. hartshorniana, O. insularis). Leaves simple, alternate, rarely opposite or whorled.[9] The leaves are lauroid, they are commonly dark green glossy with sometimes brown on the underside and fragrant oil cells.[10]
The African and Madagascan species all have bisexual flowers (possessing both male and female parts), whereas many of the American species have flowers that are unisexual (either male or female).[3]
The apetalous flowers are in small panicles.[citation needed]
The fruits are globose or oblong berries, 3–5 cm in length, hard and fleshy and at the junction of the peduncle part with the fruit covered by a cup-shaped, occasionally flat, cupule,[11] giving them an appearance similar to an acorn. The fruit is dark green, gradually darkening with maturity. The cupule at the base of the berry, can be more brightly colored. The fruit has a single seed wrapped in a hard coat and can be slightly lignified.[citation needed]
Names
The genus has no standard common name. Names often refer to the aroma of the wood, which can be strong and not always pleasant. Sweetwood is usually applied only to this genus,[12] although many names are also applied to this genus and other genera:
Stinkwood can refer to several unrelated trees that have bad-smelling wood. Ocotea bullata is called black stinkwood or true stinkwood, and Ocotea foetens is also called stinkwood.
The common names of some species refer to their similarity to other Lauraceae such as Sassafras (Brazilian sassafras: O. odorifera) or Laurus (Cape laurel: O. bullata, Sword laurel: O. floribunda, Guaika laurel: O. puberula, etc.).
Most relatively small fruit species are of great environmental importance because they are the food of many endemic birds and mammals, especially in Islands, and premontane and montane forests.[9] The leaves of Ocotea species are the food source for the caterpillars of several species of endemic Lepidoptera, including several species of Memphis.[15] Some Memphis caterpillars feed solely on the leaves of one species of Ocotea; for example M. mora feeds only on O. cernua, and M. boisduvali feeds only on O. veraguensis[15]
Most of the African tree species are ancient paleoendemic species,[24] which in ancient times were widely distributed on the continent.[19][24] This is not the case in the Americas: 89 species have been collected in Venezuela alone.[25]
Species of Ocotea can be attacked by various rot-inducing root pathogens, including Loweporus inflexibilis, Phellinus apiahynus[26] and Phytophthora cinnamomi.[27]
Some Ocotea species are used as nesting sites by ants, which may live in leaf pockets or in hollowed-out stems. The ants patrol their host plants more frequently in response to disturbance or to the appearance of insect pests such as grasshoppers.[28]
Some fast growing Ocotea tree species are harvested commercially for timber. These include O. puberula, O. bullata (black or true stinkwood) and O. usambarensis. The timber is valued for its resistance to fungal decay.
The following are some of the species of Ocotea.[29] Distinguishing Ocotea species from Nectandra and other close relatives is problematic. Povedadaphne may be better placed in Ocotea.[citation needed]
^P. Renvall & T. Niemelä (1993). "Ocotea usambarensis and its fungal decayers in natural stands". Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique. 62 (1/4): 403–414. doi:10.2307/3668286. JSTOR3668286.
^W. A. Lübbe & G. P. Mostert (1991). "Rate of Ocotea bullata decline in association with Phytophtora cinnamomi at three study sites in the Southern Cape indigenous forests". South African Forestry Journal. 159 (1): 17–24. doi:10.1080/00382167.1991.9630390.
^Jean Stout (1979). "An association of an ant, a mealy bug, and an understory tree from a Costa Rican rain forest". Biotropica. 11 (4): 309–311. doi:10.2307/2387924. JSTOR2387924.
^A review of the early Miocene Mastixioid flora of the Kristina Mine at Hrádek nad Nisou in North Bohemia, The Czech Republic, January 2012 by F. Holý, Z. Kvaček and Vasilis Teodoridis - ACTA MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE Series B – Historia Naturalis • vol. 68 • 2012 • no. 3–4 • pp. 53–118
^Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Messinian macrofossil floras of Tossignano and Monte Tondo (Vena del Gesso Basin, Romagna Apennines, northern Italy) - Vasilis Teodoridis, Zlatko Kvacek, Marco Sami and Edoardo Martinetto - December 2015 DOI: 10.14446/AMNP.2015.249.