Glochidion is a
genus of flowering plants, of the
familyPhyllanthaceae, known as cheese trees or buttonwood in Australia, and leafflower trees in the scientific literature. It comprises about 300
species,[2] distributed from
Madagascar to the
Pacific Islands. Glochidion species are used as food plants by the
larvae of some
Lepidoptera species including Aenetus eximia and Endoclita damor.[3] The
Nicobarese people have attested to the medicinal properties found in G. calocarpum, saying that its bark and seed are most effective in curing abdominal disorders associated with
amoebiasis.[4]
Glochidion are of note in the fields of
pollination biology and
coevolution because they have a specialized
mutualism with moths in the genus Epicephala (leafflower moths), in which the moths actively pollinate the flowers—thereby ensuring that the tree may produce viable seeds—but also lay eggs in the flowers' ovaries, where their larvae consume a subset of the developing seeds as nourishment.[5][6][7] Other species of Epicephala are pollinators, and in some cases, non-pollinating seed predators, of certain species of plants in the genera Phyllanthus[8][9] and Breynia,[10][11] both closely related to Glochidion.[12] This relationship is similar to those between
figs and
fig wasps and
yuccas and
yucca moths.
Although the genus Glochidion is native only to the
Old World, the East Asian species Glochidion puberum has become naturalized at several locations in the U.S. state of
Alabama.[13][14]
In a 2006 revision of the Phyllanthaceae, it was recommended that Glochidion be subsumed in Phyllanthus.[15] New combinations in Phyllanthus have been published for Madagascar[16] and the Pacific Islands,[17] but most remain to be published.
^Carl T. Bergstrom; Lee Alan Dugatkin (2012).
Evolution. Norton. p. 630.
ISBN978-0-393-92592-0.
Archived from the original on 2016-11-18. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
^Kawakita, A.; Kato, M. (2004). "Evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in New Caledonian Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae)". American Journal of Botany. 91 (3): 410–415.
doi:
10.3732/ajb.91.3.410.
PMID21653396.
^Kawakita, A.; Kato, M. (2004). "Obligate pollination mutualism in Breynia (Phyllanthaceae): further documentation of pollination mutualism involving Epicephala moths (Gracillariidae)". American Journal of Botany. 91 (9): 1319–1325.
doi:
10.3732/ajb.91.9.1319.
PMID21652364.
^Fearn, M. L.; Urbatsch, L. E. (2001). "Glochidion puberum (Euphorbiaceae) naturalized in southern Alabama". SIDA, Contributions to Botany. 19: 711–714.
^Hoffmann, Petra; Kathriarachchi, Hashendra S.; Wurdack, Kenneth J. (2006). "A Phylogenetic Classification of Phyllanthaceae". Kew Bulletin. 61 (1): 37–53.
^Hoffmann, P. and McPherson, G., 2003. Transfer of Madagascan Glochidion to Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae sl or Phyllanthaceae). Novon 13(3):307-310.
^Wagner WL, Lorence DH. A nomenclator of Pacific oceanic island Phyllanthus (Phyllanthaceae), including Glochidion. PhytoKeys. 2011(4):67-94
^
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw"Glochidion%". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS) database (listing by % wildcard matching of all taxa relevant to Australia). Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
External links
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