Laurelia
Credits
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
Recommended citation
'Laurelia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Family
- Atherospermataceae
Editorial Note
The two South American species discussed by Bean – L. serrata Bertero (syn. L. aromatica Juss. ex Poir.) and the more northerly L. sempervirens (Ruiz & Pav.) Tul. – are now considered synonymous. Laurelia novae-zelandiae was treated in New Trees.
Bean incorrectly cited Laurelia philippiana Looser as synonym for L. serrata Bertero (1829), when it is in fact a replacement name for Laurelia serrata Phil. nom. illeg. (1857), a species since referred to the segregate genus Laureliopsis (Laureliopsis philippiana (Looser) Schodde). Text reproduced below is partly derived from New Trees, pending a full, revised account to be provided when funding is available. If you would like to sponsor the entry for this genus please write to editor@treesandshrubsonline.org
Trees with simple hairs on their branchlets and inflorescences. They are dioecious or have unisexual and hermaphrodite flowers on the same plant. The flowers have a cup-shaped floral tube (hypanthium), into which the stamens are inserted; pollen is released from the anthers by way of two apical valves; pistillate flowers have numerous staminodes. The fruits are small nutlets or achenes and are covered in silky hairs. They are produced within the hypanthium, which becomes woody and warty (Philipson 1993).
Laurelia is one of six genera in the family Atherospermataceae, close to Monimiaceae, but with a Southern Hemisphere distribution on both sides of the Pacific. The genus consists of two species: Laurelia novae-zelandiae in New Zealand and L. sempervirens in southern Chile and Argentina. A third species, also in southern South America, and formerly known as Laurelia serrata Phil. not Bertero, is now recognised under the monotypic genus Laureliopsis Schodde, and further reorganisation may occur, as DNA evidence suggests that Laurelia is not monophyletic (Renner 1999). The Chilean L. sempervirens (syn. L. serrata Bertero) is reasonably well known in cultivation, although still uncommon and mostly confined to warmer and maritime gardens in the British Isles. It prefers a warm, moist site sheltered from cold wind.
