Symplocos

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{geological range|Eocene|Present}}

| image = Symplocos lucida SZ24.png

| image_caption = Plate by Philipp Franz von Siebold and Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini

| taxon = Symplocos

| authority = Jacq.{{cite POWO | title = Symplocos | id = 327989-2 | access-date = 14 February 2023}}

| diversity = c. 400 species

| diversity_link = List of Symplocos species

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = See text

| synonyms =

{{Species list

| Barberina | Vell.

| Bobu | Adans.

| Bobua | DC.

| Carlea | C.Presl

| Catonia | Vell.

| Chasseloupia | Vieill.

| Ciponima | Aubl.

| Cofer | Loefl.

| Cordyloblaste | Hensch. ex Moritzi

| Decadia | Lour.

| Dicalix | Lour.

| Drupatris | Lour.

| Hopea | L.

| Hypopogon | Turcz.

| Lodhra | Guill.

| Mongezia | Vell.

| Palura | (G.Don) Miers

| Praealstonia | Miers

| Protohopea | Miers

| Sariava | Reinw.

| Stemmatosiphum | Pohl

| Suringaria | Pierre

}}

| synonyms_ref =

}}

Symplocos is a genus of flowering plants in the order Ericales. It contains about 300 species distributed in Asia and the Americas. Many species grow in humid tropical regions. This is sometimes considered to be the only genus in family Symplocaceae.{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Y. |last2=Fritsch |first2=P.W. |last3=Shi |first3=S. |last4=Almeda |first4=F. |last5=Cruz |first5=B.C. |last6=Kelly |first6=L.M. |title=Phylogeny and infrageneric classification of Symplocos (Symplocaceae) inferred from DNA sequence data. |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=91 |issue=11 |pages=1901–14 |year=2004 |pmid=21652336 |doi=10.3732/ajb.91.11.1901 |bibcode=2004AmJB...91.1901W }} Plants in this family are shrubs and trees with white or yellow flowers.[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=10863 Symplocaceae.] Flora of China. The oldest fossils of the genus date to the lower Eocene of Europe and North America, with the genus being present in Europe as late as the Pliocene.{{Cite journal |last1=Sadowski |first1=Eva-Maria |last2=Hofmann |first2=Christa-Charlotte |date=2023-01-12 |title=The largest amber-preserved flower revisited |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=17 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-24549-z |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=9837116 |pmid=36635320|bibcode=2023NatSR..13...17S }}{{Cite journal |last1=Manchester |first1=Steven R. |last2=Fritsch |first2=Peter W. |date=January 2014 |title=European fossil fruits of Sphenotheca related to extant Asian species of Symplocos: Sphenotheca transferred to Symplocos |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jse.12060 |journal=Journal of Systematics and Evolution |language=en |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=68–74 |doi=10.1111/jse.12060|s2cid=86227214 }} Fossil seeds of †Symplocos granulosa are frequent in sediment rock layers of the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene of Denmark, Germany, Austria and Poland. The fossil seeds are very similar to the seeds of the extan southern Chinese species Symplocos glandulifera and Symplocos sulcata. Fossil seeds of †Symplocos paucicostata are known from the Middle Pliocene sediment rock layers in Reuver, the Netherlands and from the Late Pliocene sediment rock layers in northern Italy. The fossil seeds are very similar to the seeds of the extant East Asian species Symplocos paniculata.A reconsideration of the diversity of Symplocos in the European Neogene on the basis of fruit morphology by D. H. Mai and Edoardo Martinetto - Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 140(1):1-26, June 2006 - DOI:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2006.02.001

File:Symplocos kowalewskii holotype BGR X4088 Fig1d.png flower in amber]]