Gymnostoma

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Fagales > Casuarinaceae > Gymnostoma 

Other links:

Plant  information

Common name:                . . .  

Conservation status:  . . .

Etymology:   

• Gymnos, is Greek for exposed; stoma, is Greek for minute opening, referring to the position of the stomata in the grooves created by the leaves along the stem

Flowers:                  

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Trees and shrubs

Habitat:   

•  In forests of the tropics, including at high elevations having temperate climates 

• The majority of the species grow in rainforests, in the habitats of open, sunny, long-term gaps, from river bank (riparian) situations through to mountain top situations

• In New Caledonia two endemic species G. chamaecyparis and G. deplancheanum have specialised adaptations, growing in wet "shrub maquis and paraforest maquis formations

  • G. chamaecyparis is associated with hypermagnesian soils (hypermagnesian inceptisol) below 600 m altitude at the base of ultramafic massifs

  • G. deplancheanum occurs on ferralitic ferritic desaturated hardpan or gravelly soils (oxisol) on the southern massif at altitudes between 200 and 1000 m

Distribution:                  

• Western Pacific ocean and Malesia

• In New Caledonia, published botanical science describes eight endemic species 

• Other species are native to Borneo, Sumatra, Maluku, and New Guinea, and one endemic species each in Fiji and the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia

Species:                     

• World:           18

• Australia:     1

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Constitutes one of the four genera of the plant family Casuarinaceae

  • The genus was first scientifically described by Lawrie A. S. Johnson in 1980

  • Many of the Gymnostoma species were described by him in 1982

  • As of 2013, a global total of eighteen species have been found and described

• Species

  • There are 14 formally described species:

    • Gymnostoma australianum – Australia endemic

    • Gymnostoma chamaecyparis – New Caledonia endemic[

    • Gymnostoma deplancheanum – New Caledonia endemic

    • Gymnostoma glaucescens – New Caledonia endemic

    • Gymnostoma intermedium – New Caledonia endemic

    • Gymnostoma leucodon – New Caledonia endemic

    • Gymnostoma nobile – Borneo

    • Gymnostoma nodiflorum – New Caledonia endemic

    • Gymnostoma papuanum – New Guinea

    • Gymnostoma poissonianum – New Caledonia endemic

    • Gymnostoma rumphianum – Maluku

    • Gymnostoma sumatranum - L.A.S.Johnson – Sumatra

    • Gymnostoma vitiense - Fiji endemic

    • Gymnostoma webbianum – New Caledonia endemic

  • There are approximately four additional species, found in New Guinea and collections preserved, that are awaiting formal description

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnostoma (2023)