Distylium (winter-hazel) is a genus of 16 species of evergreen shrubs and trees in the witch hazel family, Hamamelidaceae, native to eastern and southeastern Asia.

Taxonomy

Fossil record

Researchers have recognized Distylium fossil pollen among the middle Miocene Sarmatian palynoflora from the Lavanttal Basin of Austria. The sediment containing the fossil pollen had accumulated in a lowland wetland environment with various vegetation units of mixed evergreen/deciduous broadleaved/conifer forests surrounding the wetland basin. Key relatives of the fossil taxa found with Distylium are presently confined to humid warm temperate environments, suggesting a subtropical climate during the middle Miocene in Austria. Distylium macrofossils of the Lower and Middle Miocene, are known from the lignite mines of the Kaltennortheim Formation in the Rhön Mountains, central Germany, where it is associated with typical elements of the Mastixioid floras that attest to an optimal warm humid phase of the Miocene.

Species

16 species are accepted.

• Distylium annamicum – eastern Thailand and southern Vietnam

• Distylium buxifolium - China

• Distylium chinense - China

• Distylium chungii - China

• Distylium cuspidatum - China

• Distylium dunnianum - China

• Distylium elaeagnoides - China

• Distylium gracile - China

• Distylium indicum – Meghalaya to Indochina

• Distylium lepidotum – Ogasawara Islands

• Distylium macrophyllum - China

• Distylium myricoides - China

• Distylium pingpienense - China

• Distylium racemosum - tree up to 20m; China, Korea, Japan (Ryukyu Islands)(known as Isunoki(イスノキ)/Nara(柞), Taiwan

• Distylium stellare – Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Lesser Sunda Islands

• Distylium tsiangii - China

References

• Flora of China:

External links