Kingdom Plantae Family Lauraceae Scientific name Ocotea catharinensis Rank Species | Order Laurales Genus Ocotea Higher classification Ocotea | |
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Similar Ocotea, Ocotea odorifera, Lauraceae, Nectandra, Ocotea puberula | ||
Ocotea catharinensis is a member of the plant family Lauraceae. It is a slow-growing evergreen, a valuable hardwood tree of broad ecological importance, and it is threatened by habitat loss and by overexploitation for its timber and essential oils.
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Description
Ocotea catharinensis is a slow-growing monoecious evergreen hardwood up to 40m tall. Its flowers are small and hermaphrodite. The ovary is glabrous with a well developed ovule. Often not all the locelli are fertile.
Ecology
Ocotea catharinensis is a dominant canopy tree of the South American tropical rainforest. It grows on deep, rich, well-drained soils on slopes between 30 and 900m above sea level. It is a honey-bearing tree and its fruits are eaten by birds and mammals, including the endangered monkey Brachyteles arachnoides.
Uses and conservation status
The tree is badly overexploited for its valuable hardwood, its essential oils with their (linalool) content, and for various pharmaceutical compounds or prospects such as neolignans. From the early- to mid-20th century the wood was popular for the flooring of houses in the Brazilian coastal State of Santa Catarina. In 1997 it appeared in the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable Since then it has been described as "on the verge of extinction" and research is being published on prospects for its somatic propagation.
Distribution
An Atlantic rainforest species, Ocotea catharinensis is endemic to eastern Brazil, its range extending southward from Minas Gerais to Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo Brazilian states and possibly too in the Argentine province of Misiones (Argentina) and Paraguay.