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Parrotiopsis C.K. Schneid.

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Sponsor

Kindly sponsored by
Lucy Garton

Credits

Owen Johnson (2024)

Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2024), 'Parrotiopsis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/parrotiopsis/). Accessed 2024-10-06.

Family

  • Hamamelidaceae

Glossary

endemic
(of a plant or an animal) Found in a native state only within a defined region or country.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
keel petal
(in the flowers of some legumes) The two front petals fused together to form a keel-like structure.

Credits

Owen Johnson (2024)

Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2024), 'Parrotiopsis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/parrotiopsis/). Accessed 2024-10-06.

Parrotiopsis

Parrotiopsis jacquemontiana at the Yorkshire Arboretum, UK, July 2022. The large and showy petal-like bracts are unique within this group of genera. Image John Grimshaw.

One species; small tree or shrub. Buds alternate, bearing protective scales. Leaves deciduous, broad. Inflorescence short-stalked, with c. 20 clustered flowers. Flowers bearing 15(–24) showy stamens, with upright filaments 3–4 mm long and oval anthers; involucral bracts 4–6, white, petal-like; ovary densely woolly. Fruit capsules clustered. (Ali 2011; Bean 1976).

The single species of Parrotiopsis is most closely allied to Parrotia, Sycopsis, Distylium and Distyliopsis, differing most obviously in its insect-pollinated flowers with large masses of long yellow stamens and petal-like white bracts, and sharing only with Parrotia its broadly ovate, deciduous leaves. It is also the only member of this group to survive as an endemic of the western Himalaya.

Parrotiopsis

The four to six conspicuous petal-like bracts of Parrotiopsis jacquemontiana constitute the chief feature of the inflorescence. Parc de la Feuillerie, Celles, Belgium. 17 April 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

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