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Casearia yucatanensis

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Casearia yucatanensis
Casearia yucatanensis flower
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Salicaceae
Genus: Casearia
Species:
C. yucatanensis
Binomial name
Casearia yucatanensis
(Standl.) T.Samar. & M.H.Alford[1]
Synonyms[1]

Casearia yucatanensis, with no commonly used English name, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Salicaceae.

Casearia yucatanensis is a shrub or tree up to 12m tall (~39 feet). Its leaves are deciduous, have short petioles, their blades are oval to somewhat wider above their middles, and their tips are rounded to pointed, but not sharply. Blade margins vary from having no indentations or teeth to presenting a few widely separated and not well defined ones. Blades gradually diminish in width at their bases and are densely hairy with longer hairs on the undersurfaces.[2] Ducts and cavities appearing as pellucid dots occur in the blades.[3]

Flowers arise in angles formed where petioles connect with the stems, either individually on in small, crowded clusters. Flowers have no distinct pedicel, nor do they produce corollas. However, 4 or 5 calyx lobes up to 1cm long (~38 inch) expand and look like round-tipped petals. Stamens form a tube up to 4mm long (~316 inch). Fruits are spherical, fleshy to leathery, many-seeded capsules which produce a fleshy, red aril in which the seeds are enmeshed.[2][4]

Distribution

Casearia yucatanensis is endemic just to the southeastern Mexican states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche.[5]

Habitat

Casearia yucatanensis occurs in tropical deciduous forests and disturbed areas.[5]

Conservation status

In 2020, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classified Casearia yucatanensis as "Near Threatened (NT) under criteria B2b(i,ii,iii)", with a stable population trend. It is considered as potentially threatened by deforestation due to land use change for urban expansion, tourist developments, and forest fires.[6]

Taxonomy

The type specimen of Casearia yucatanensis was collected by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott in Yucatán, Mexico, in May (year unclear in notes), his #603.[2] It is known that Schott was involved in the German settlements in Yucatán during Mexico's Second Empire of 1864–1867.[7] The holotype is filed in the United States National Herbarium as #1,073,356.[8]

The existence of Casearia yucatanensis is seen as a consequence of long-distance dispersal between the Antilles and the Yucatan Peninsula Biotic Province, in an east-to-west direction.[9]

Etymology

References

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