Picconia is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, found in the laurel forests habitat of Macaronesia.[1]

Picconia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Oleaceae
Tribe:	Oleeae
Subtribe:	Oleinae
Genus:	Picconia DC.
Species
See text

Description

They are evergreen shrubs to trees with large, opposite, entire, shiny, ovoid leaves and numerous flowers. The fruit is a drupe. The flowers are small, white and fragrant, followed by one-seeded, olive-like green fruits, ripening to bluish-black.[2] Picconia are native of open spots in the laurel forest of the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands where they are found only in the humid to hyper-humid evergreen forests of the cloud belt.[3] Tree species with laurel-like leaves are predominant, forming a dense canopy up to 40 m high that blocks out most light, resulting in scant vegetation in the understory.[3] Most of these tree species in Africa are ancient paleoendemic[4] species of the genera Laurus, Ocotea, Persea, and Picconia, which in ancient times were widely distributed on the African and European continents.[3][4]

Species

• Picconia azorica - endemic to the archipelago of the Azores[5]
• Picconia excelsa - tree up to 15m; Madeira, Canaries

References

External links

Media related to Picconia at Wikimedia Commons

На других языках

[es] Picconia