Symplocos Explained

Symplocos is a genus of flowering plants in the order Ericales. It contains about 300 species distributed in Asia and the Americas. Many species grow in humid tropical regions. This is sometimes considered to be the only genus in family Symplocaceae.^[1] Plants in this family are shrubs and trees with white or yellow flowers.^[2] The oldest fossils of the genus date to the lower Eocene of Europe and North America, with the genus being present in Europe as late as the Pliocene.^{[3] [4]} Fossil seeds of †Symplocos granulosa are frequent in sediment rock layers of the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene of Denmark, Germany, Austria and Poland. The fossil seeds are very similar to the seeds of the extan southern Chinese species Symplocos glandulifera and Symplocos sulcata. Fossil seeds of †Symplocos paucicostata are known from the Middle Pliocene sediment rock layers in Reuver, the Netherlands and from the Late Pliocene sediment rock layers in northern Italy. The fossil seeds are very similar to the seeds of the extant East Asian species Symplocos paniculata^[5]

Selected species

See main article: List of Symplocos species.

• Symplocos adenophylla
• Symplocos ampulliformis — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos anamallayana
• Symplocos anomala
• Symplocos austromexicana — deciduous shrub up to 2m; narrow endemic, Oaxaca, Mexico
• Symplocos badia
• Symplocos baehnii
• Symplocos barberi
• Symplocos bauerlenii — shrub or small tree up to 7m; eastern Australia
• Symplocos blancae
• Symplocos bractealis
• Symplocos breedlovei
• Symplocos calycodactylos
• Symplocos candelabrum — tree up to 13m; Lord Howe Island
• Symplocos canescens
• Symplocos carmencitae
• Symplocos chloroleuca
• Symplocos clethrifolia
• Symplocos citrea
• Symplocos coccinea
• Symplocos cochinchinensis

• var. cochinchinensis

• var. gittonsii — Northeast Queensland, Australia

• var. glaberrima — Northeast Queensland, Australia

• var. pilosiuscula — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos cordifolia — Sri Lanka
• Symplocos coreana — Korean sweetleaf,^[6] deciduous shrub up to 5m; Japan, Korea
• Symplocos coronata — Sri Lanka
• Symplocos costaricana – Central America
• Symplocos costata
• Symplocos crassiramifera — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos cuneata — Sri Lanka
• Symplocos cyanocarpa — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos ecuadorica – Ecuador
• Symplocos fuscata
• Symplocos glauca — evergreen tree up to 15m; Japan, Taiwan, China, Indochina
• Symplocos graniticola — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos hayesii — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos henschelii
• Symplocos hispidula
• Symplocos hylandii — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos junghuhnii
• †Symplocos kowalewskii Baltic amber, Eocene
• Symplocos lancifolia — evergreen tree up to 5m; Japan
• Symplocos longipes
• Symplocos lucida — China, Japan, Taiwan, South Asia, Malesia
• Symplocos lugubris
• Symplocos mezii
• Symplocos myrtacea — evergreen tree up to 10m; Japan
• Symplocos nairii
• Symplocos nicolsonii — India
• Symplocos nivea
• Symplocos octopetala
• Symplocos oligandra
• Symplocos paniculata — (sapphireberry) — deciduous shrub up to 8m; Japan, South Korea; popular as an ornamental plant
• Symplocos paucistaminea — Northeast Queensland, Australia
• Symplocos pendula
• Symplocos peruviana
• Symplocos pluribracteata
• Symplocos prunifolia — evergreen tree]up to 10m; Japan, Korea
• Symplocos pulchra — Sri Lanka
• Symplocos pyriflora
• Symplocos racemosa — China, South Asia
• Symplocos rimbachii
• Symplocos shilanensis
• Symplocos sousae
• Symplocos stawellii — shrub or small tree up to 30m; eastern Australia

• var. montana — Northeast Queensland, Australia

• var. stawellii — Australia
• Symplocos subandina
• Symplocos subintegra Chatterjee
• Symplocos tacanensis
• Symplocos tanakae — evergreen tree; Japan
• Symplocos theophrastaefolia — evergreen tree up to 15m; Japan, Taiwan, China
• Symplocos thwaitesii — shrub or small tree up to 17m; eastern Australia
• Symplocos tinctoria — (sweetleaf, horse-sugar, yellowwood) — deciduous or evergreen shrub or tree up to 6m; United States
• Symplocos trichoclada
• Symplocos truncata
• Symplocos tubulifera
• Symplocos verrucisurcula
• Symplocos versicolor

Notes and References

1. Wang . Y. . Fritsch . P.W. . Shi . S. . Almeda . F. . Cruz . B.C. . Kelly . L.M. . Phylogeny and infrageneric classification of Symplocos (Symplocaceae) inferred from DNA sequence data. . American Journal of Botany . 91 . 11 . 1901–14 . 2004 . 21652336 . 10.3732/ajb.91.11.1901 .
2. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=10863 Symplocaceae.
3. Sadowski . Eva-Maria . Hofmann . Christa-Charlotte . 2023-01-12 . The largest amber-preserved flower revisited . Scientific Reports . en . 13 . 1 . 17 . 10.1038/s41598-022-24549-z . 2045-2322 . 9837116 . 36635320. 2023NatSR..13...17S .
4. Manchester . Steven R. . Fritsch . Peter W. . January 2014 . European fossil fruits of Sphenotheca related to extant Asian species of Symplocos: Sphenotheca transferred to Symplocos . Journal of Systematics and Evolution . en . 52 . 1 . 68–74 . 10.1111/jse.12060. 86227214 .
5. A reconsideration of the diversity of Symplocos in the European Neogene on the basis of fruit morphology by D. H. Mai and Edoardo Martinetto - Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 140(1):1-26, June 2006 - DOI:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2006.02.001
6. Book: English Names for Korean Native Plants. Korea National Arboretum. 2015. 978-89-97450-98-5. Pocheon. 650. 24 December 2016. Korea Forest Service. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170525105020/http://www.forest.go.kr/kna/special/download/English_Names_for_Korean_Native_Plants.pdf. 25 May 2017.