Atalaya (plant)

Atalaya
Atalaya salicifolia (type species) habit (above), foliage (below)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Sapindaceae
Subfamily: Sapindoideae
Genus: Atalaya
Blume[1]
Type species
Atalaya salicifolia
(A.DC.) Blume[1]
Species

See text

Atalaya calcicola foliage
Atalaya hemiglauca foliage and flowers, Rockhampton, Queensland

Atalaya is a genus of eighteen species of trees and shrubs of the plant family Sapindaceae. As of 2013 fourteen species grow naturally in Australia and in neighbouring New Guinea only one endemic species is known to science. Three species are known growing naturally in southern Africa, including two species endemic to South Africa and one species in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

One species A. salicifolia, which grows in Australia, has a wider distribution through nearby Timor and westwards through some more of the Lesser Sunda Islands (Indonesia).[2] This species has the widest distribution of all and is the type species—the first to have a formal scientific name, description and represent the genus.[7]

In biodiversity–rich New Guinea as of 2013, many areas do not have complete formal scientific botanical survey. In this context, science seems to have only recorded the knowledge of A. papuana growing there naturally as the putative sole endemic species. Regionally widespread A. salicifolia does not seem to have scientific records from New Guinea even though science has recorded it many times in the regions of northern Australia and Timor nearest to southern and western New Guinea.[4][7]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Blume-1847 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Cowie-Stuckey-2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference APNI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Census-PNG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Coopers-2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Reynolds (1985), pp. 12–18.
  7. ^ a b Leenhouts (1994), pp. 479–83.