• Source: Palicourea

Palicourea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It contains 694 species, which range from shrubs to small trees, and is distributed throughout the New World tropics.
These plants are closely related to Psychotria and in particular its subgenus Heteropsychotria. Indeed, it seems to be nothing else but a distinctively-flowered offshoot of Heteropsychotria; arguably, it would thus need to be merged into Psychotria to make that genus monophyletic. On the other hand, Psychotria is extremely diverse already, so it is probably more practical to move the more distantly related species out of this genus and merge Heteropsychotria with Palicourea. By a Hungarian botanist Attila Borhidi, some of the Psychotria species have been transferred into this genus.
The genus is not well studied. Most species are distylous, although a few on isolated Caribbean islands seem to have lost the trait. Flowers are in racemes, having no scent, and are normally pollinated by hummingbirds. Blue-black berries follow, and are thought to be distributed by birds.
Almost one-tenth of the Palicourea species are considered threatened by the IUCN, even though the conservation status has only been reviewed for those species that occur in Ecuador.




Selected species


Palicourea anderssoniana
Palicourea anianguana
Palicourea asplundii
Palicourea azurea
Palicourea bracteocardia
Palicourea calantha
Palicourea calothyrsus
Palicourea calycina
Palicourea canarina
Palicourea candida
Palicourea consobrina
Palicourea corniculata
Palicourea cornigera
Palicourea elata (syn. Psychotria elata)
Palicourea fuchsioides
Palicourea gentryi
Palicourea heilbornii
Palicourea herrerae
Palicourea holmgrenii
Palicourea jaramilloi
Palicourea lasiantha
Palicourea lasiorrhachis
Palicourea latifolia
Palicourea lobbii
Palicourea macrocalyx
Palicourea microcarpa (Ruiz & Pav.) Zappi
Palicourea padifolia
Palicourea prodiga
Palicourea sodiroi
Palicourea stenosepala
Palicourea subalatoides
Palicourea tectoneura
Palicourea tomentosa (syn. Psychotria poeppigiana)
Palicourea wilesii




References






Further reading


International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (2008): [www.iucnredlist.org 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species].
Taylor, Charlotte M. (2008): Palicourea Aubl. (Rubiaceae: Psychotrieae). Version of 2008-APR-04. Retrieved 2008-DEC-21.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Psychotria
• Psychotria muscosa
• Psychotria breviflora
• Psychotria sellowiana
• Psychotria torbeciana
• Psychotria levis
• Psychotria pluricostata
• Psychotria elata
• Psychotria phanerandra
• Psychotria hoffmannseggiana
• Palicourea
• Palicourea elata
• Palicourea bracteocardia
• Palicourea padifolia
• Palicourea azurea
• Palicourea tomentosa
• Palicourea herrerae
• Palicourea canarina
• Palicourea consobrina
• Palicourea anderssoniana