Symplocos is a genus of flowering plants in the order Ericales, and is the only genus in family Symplocaceae. It comprises about 400 species distributed through tropical and subtropical Asia, Australia, the western Pacific and the Americas.

Description

Species in this family are shrubs or trees; they may be , or . Leaves are mostly spirally arranged and are simple with entire or toothed margins; stipules are absent, petioles present, venation pinnate. Inflorescences take various forms, mostly a raceme, spike, panicle, or a solitary flower. Fruits are single-seeded drupes, often blue.

Distribution

Symplocos is native to the following regions as defined in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions:

• Indian Subcontinent: Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya

• China: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet

• Eastern Asia: Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan

• Indo-China: Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam

• Malesia: Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera

• Papuasia: Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is.

• Australia: New South Wales, Norfolk Is., Queensland

• Northwestern Pacific: Caroline Is.

• Southwestern Pacific: Fiji, New Caledonia, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu

• Mexico: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest

• North-Central U.S.A.: Oklahoma

• South-Central U.S.A.: Texas

• Southeastern U.S.A.: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia

• Brazil: Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central

• Caribbean: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.,

• Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá

• Northern South America: French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela

• Southern South America: Argentina Northeast, Paraguay, Uruguay

• Western South America: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

Fossil record

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. 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 extant 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.

Selected species

Extinct species

• †Symplocos kowalewskii Baltic amber, Eocene

References