Visnea Explained

Visnea is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in family Pentaphylacaceae. The genus contains a single species, Visnea mocanera a tree native to the Canary Islands and Madeira.[1]

The fruits of the tree (known as Mocan) are edible.[2] [3]

The genus name of Visnea is in honour of Gérard de Visme (c. 1725 – c. 1797), a French and English merchant in Lisbon, Portugal.[4] The genus was first described by Carl Linnaeus the Younger in 1782, and published in Suppl. Pl. on page 36.[1]

Note; Visnea Steud. ex Endl. is a synonym of Barbacenia, a genus in a different family.

Fossil record

Four fossil seeds of a Visnea sp. have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Visnea L.f. Plants of the World Online Kew Science . Plants of the World Online . 8 January 2022 . en.
  2. Hernández-Pérez . Margarita . Frı́as . Juana . Rabana . Rosa . Vidal-Valverde . Concepción . Proximate Composition of "Mocan" (Visnea mocanera L.f.): A Fruit Consumed by Canary Natives Author links open overlay panell . Journal of Food Composition and Analysis . September 1994 . 7 . 3 . 203–207. 10.1006/jfca.1994.1020 .
  3. Marcelino J. del Arco Aguilar and Octavio Rodríguez Delgado
  4. Book: Burkhardt, Lotte . Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition . Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition . Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin . 2018 . 978-3-946292-26-5 . pdf . German . Berlin . 10.3372/epolist2018 . 187926901 . 1 January 2021.
  5. Angiosperm Fruits and Seeds from the Middle Miocene of Jutland (Denmark) by Else Marie Friis, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters 24:3, 1985

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