Stachyurus

Stachyurus
Stachyurus praecox flowers.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Crossosomatales
Family: Stachyuraceae
J.Agardh
Genus: Stachyurus
Siebold & Zucc.
Species

See text

Stachyurus is the only genus in the flowering plant family Stachyuraceae,[1] native to the Himalayas and eastern Asia. They are deciduous shrubs or small trees with pendent racemes of 4-petalled flowers which appear on the bare branches before the leaves.[2] The plants have leaves with serrate margins.

Pendunculagin, casuarictin, strictinin, casuarinin and casuariin are ellagitannins found in species in this genus.[3]

Stachyurus praecox from Japan, and the slightly later-flowering S. chinensis from China, are both cultivated as ornamental plants, valued for their exceptionally early flowering periods.

Stachyurus chinensis
  1. ^ Christenhusz, M. J. M. & Byng, J. W. (2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. 261 (3). Magnolia Press: 201–217. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.
  2. ^ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1405332965.
  3. ^ Tannins of Casuarina and Stachyurus species. I: Structures of pendunculagin, casuarictin, strictinin, casuarinin, casuariin, and stachyurin. Okuda T., Yoshida T., Ashida M. and Yazaki K., Journal of the Chemical Society, 1983, no8, pp. 1765-1772