Eupomatiaceae

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Common name:        None

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• Flowers perfect, cream or red and yellow, 30–40 mm in diameter, actinomorphic, spiral, epigynous, solitary, axillary or terminal, sometimes in fascicles of 2-3, with 1-2 fused bracts forming a calyptra[4] Receptacle urceolate (shaped like an urn). 

• Sepals and petals absent; stamens 20-100, tetrasporangiate, petaloids, gynostemium short, wide, anthers basifixed, introrse, longitudinally dehiscent, connectivum elongated; staminodes intrastaminal 40-80, petaloid, with glands in the blade and at the edge; stamens and staminodes basally fused forming a deciduous synandrium; carpels 13-70, syncarpous, fused for more than half of their length, forming a flattened apical structure; styles absent, stigmas flat, papillose; ovules 2-11 per carpel, anatropous, apotropous, bitegmic, crassinucellate; placentation sublaminar, in two rows along the ventral side of the carpel.

• Protogynous and autocompatible flowers, with a reduction in selfing through herkogamy (the stigma is above the level of the anthers), diurnal synchronization of anthesis and the tendency of the same plant to not flower on two consecutive days. Anthesis lasts one or two days, at the height the flower behaves functionally as a female, showing its gynoecium and with open staminodes, while the stamens remain below the flower. The flower later behaves as a male with the intrastaminal staminodes folded inwards hiding the gynoecium and with erect stamens. The staminodes secrete an oily exudate and emit a fruity smell that attracts beetles, particularly of the genus Elleschodes (Curculionidae), that visit the flowers in both phases, in addition the synandria fall to the ground (cantharophily pollination)

• Pollen subglobose, grooved; exine atectate, psilate

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is sweet and aromatic and it is dispersed by birds and mammals (zoochory)

• The fruit is also eaten by humans

• Fruit compound in fleshy berry

• Seeds with endosperm fleshy to oily, ruminate, embryo straight, small, with two cotyledons

• Used to make traditional Australian drinks, preserves and pastries

Leaves:         

•  Leaves distichous, simple, entire, penninerved, brochidodromous, petiolate, without stipules with secretory, aromatic idioblasts, stomata paracytic or actinocytic, only on the undersides of leaves

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Habit:        

• Trees or subshrubs rhizomatous with soft starchy basal tubers

• Indumentum absent or present on the branches

• Stems with nodes (5-)7(-11)-lacunar, radii uni- or multicellular, medulla not septate

• Plants hermaphrodites

Habitat:   

• Rainforests and humid eucalypt forests

Distribution:                  

•   Eastern Australia and New Guinea

Species:                     

• World:           3 S,    1 G

• Australia:      3 S,    1 G (2 endemic species)

Additional notes:        

• Eupomatia is a genus of three flowering shrub species, constituting the only genus in the ancient family Eupomatiaceae

• The Eupomatiaceae have been recognised by most taxonomists and classified in the plant order Magnoliales. The type species Eupomatia laurina was described in 1814 by Robert Brown.

• Chromosomal number: n = 10, 2n = 20.

• Phytochemistry: Plants contain unusual lignans and alkaloids (sampangine, eupolauridine, eupomatidine-1, liriodenine and lanuginosine, antimicrobials and antifungals) such as proanthocyanidins, cyanidin and flavonoids, in particular velutin. Iridoids, flavonols and ellagic acid are absent. Cyanogenesis absent.

• The colourful wood of E. laurina is valued 

• The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website considers Eupomatiaceae a sister group of the family Annonaceae in the terminal clade in the order’s evolution

• Species

  • Eupomatia barbata Jessup – formally described in 2002

    • Commonly named northern small bolwarra

    • Endemic only in north-eastern Queensland, Australia

    • Shrubs up to 1 m tall

  • Eupomatia bennettii F. Muell. – formally described in 1858

    • Commonly named small bolwarra

    • Endemic only in north-eastern NSW and south-eastern Queensland, Australia

    • Shrubs up to 1.4 m tall, little branching

    • Leaves oblanceolate to oblong, 80-200 mm by 25-50 mm, petiole decurrent (leaf blades that partly wrap or have wings around the stem) on the stem

    • Flowers up to about 25 mm diameter, pedicels 5 mm; stamens 8-12 mm, yellow with the inside stained red; dark red staminodes

    • Fruits obconic, 20-30 mm diameter, green turning yellow on ripening

  • Eupomatia laurina R. Br. – formally described in 1814

    • Commonly named bolwarra or copper laurel. 

    • Grows naturally in New Guinea and eastern Australia. 

    • Shrubs or small trees up to 10 m tall, highly branched; 

    • Leaves shiny, oblong-elliptical, 70-120 mm long by 20-50 mm wide, petiole non-decurrent of 3 mm

    • Flowers 20 mm in diameter; stamens white to cream, off-white staminodes

    • Fruits greenish-yellow of 15-20 mm diameter, brown when ripe; pollinated by a weevil

• Notes

  • There was no agreement in the references consulted as to whether the calyptra (cover to flower) derived from the calyx (outer whorl of flower) or a bract

  • Perianths do not appear when the calyptra develops, so that, as mentioned, the plants have flowers without petals

  • When the calyptra’s first floral organs appear stamens and staminodes emerge arranged in a regular pattern following the Fibonacci sequence joined in sequences of 13 and 21 (E. bennettii) or only 13 (E. laurina)

  • The carpels are also arranged in the same way in spirals of eight and 13 (E. bennettii) and of five and eight (E. laurina)

Sources of information:

•   (2023)

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