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Pisonia

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = PisoniaBrunoniana2.jpg

|image_caption = Pisonia brunoniana

|taxon = Pisonia

|authority = L.{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?9446 |title=Genus: Pisonia L. |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |date=2010-07-07 |access-date=2010-11-18}}

|type_species = Pisonia aculeata

|type_species_authority = L.{{cite web |url=http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40009615 |title=Pisonia L. |work=TROPICOS |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden |access-date=2010-01-21}}

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = See text

|synonyms =

  • Columella {{small|Vell.}}
  • Pallavia {{small|Vell.}}
  • Tragularia {{small|J.Koenig ex Roxb.}}

|synonyms_ref = {{cite web |title=Pisonia Plum. ex L. |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:326870-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |access-date=22 March 2025}}

}}

Pisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso (1611–1678).{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kaN-hLL-3qEC |title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology |volume=3 |year=2000 |first=Umberto |last=Quattrocchi |isbn=978-0-8493-2673-8 |page=2083|publisher=CRC Press }} Certain species in this genus are known as catchbirdtrees, birdcatcher trees or birdlime trees because they catch birds. The sticky seeds are postulated to be an adaptation of some island species that ensures the dispersal of seeds between islands by attaching them to birds, and also allows the enriching of coralline sands. (Should a fledgling fall to the ground, become entangled in the Pisonia{{'s}} sticky seeds, and be unable to free itself, then it will starve, and so enrich the soil within the tree's rootzone.) These island species include P. brunoniana of Australasia and Polynesia and P. umbellifera, which is widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific region.

Species

27 species are accepted.

=Formerly placed here=

  • Ceodes brunoniana (Endl.) Skottsb. (as P. brunoniana {{small|Endl.}}) – Australasian catchbirdtree (Australasia and Polynesia)
  • Ceodes gracilescens {{small|(Heimerl) E.F.S.Rossetto & Caraballo}} (as P. gracilescens {{small|(Heimerl) Stenmerik}}) – (Society Islands)
  • Ceodes sechellarum (F.Friedmann) E.F.S.Rossetto & Caraballo (as P. sechellarum {{small|F.Friedmann}}) – (Seychelles and Mayotte)
  • Ceodes taitensis (Heimerl) E.F.S.Rossetto & Caraballo (as P. taitensis {{small|(Heimerl) F.Friedmann ex J.Florence}} and P. siphonocarpa {{small|(Heimerl) Stemm}}) – (French Polynesia)
  • Ceodes umbellifera {{small|J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.}} (as P. umbellifera {{small|(J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) Seem.}}) – umbrella catchbirdtree (Indo-Pacific)
  • Ceodes wagneriana (Fosberg) E.F.S.Rossetto & Caraballo (as P. wagneriana {{small|Fosberg}}) – Kaua{{okina}}i catchbirdtree, pāpala kēpau (island of Kaua{{okina}}i in Hawaii)
  • Guapira discolor (Spreng.) Little (as P. discolor Spreng. and P. floridana Britt. ex Small) – Rock Key devil's-claws
  • Rockia sandwicensis Heimerl (as P. sandwicensis {{small|Hillebr.}}){{cite journal |last1=Rossetto |first1=Elson Felipe |last2=Caraballo |first2=Marcos |title=Splitting the Pisonia birdcatcher trees: re-establishment of Ceodes and Rockia (Nyctaginaceae, Pisonieae) |journal=PhytoKeys |date=July 2020 |issue=3 |pages=121–136 |doi=10.3897/phytokeys.152.50611|doi-access=free |pmid=32733137 |pmc=7360658 }}

Gallery

File:Pisonia alba (Lettuce tree) in Hyderabad, AP W IMG 0470.jpg|Pisonia grandis in Hyderabad, India

File:Pisonia alba (Lettuce tree) in Hyderabad, AP W IMG 0469.jpg|Pisonia grandis in Hyderabad

References

{{Commons category}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://www.bbcearth.com/modal/episode-one |title=Planet Earth II: Episode 1 Islands (Noddies on the Pisonia trees in the Seychelles)|publisher=BBC Earth|year=2016|access-date=19 April 2018}}(To justify the statements, this needs to be watched. The synopsis here is insufficient.)

}}

{{Taxonbar |from=Q135334}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Nyctaginaceae genera

Category:Taxa described in 1753

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Category:Nyctaginaceae

{{Caryophyllales-stub}}