Glochidion is a genus of flowering plants in the family Phyllanthaceae, known as cheese trees or buttonwood in Australia, and leafflower trees in the scientific literature. It comprises about 170 species, distributed from Madagascar to the Pacific Islands. Glochidion species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Aenetus eximia and Endoclita damor. The Nicobarese people have attested to the medicinal properties found in G. calocarpum, saying that its bark and seed are most effective in curing abdominal disorders associated with amoebiasis.
Glochidion are of note in the fields of pollination biology and coevolution because they have a specialized mutualism with moths in the genus Epicephala (leafflower moths), in which the moths actively pollinate the flowers—thereby ensuring that the tree may produce viable seeds—but also lay eggs in the flowers' ovaries, where their larvae consume a subset of the developing seeds as nourishment. Other species of Epicephala are pollinators, and in some cases, non-pollinating seed predators, of certain species of plants in the genera Phyllanthus and Breynia, both closely related to Glochidion. This relationship is similar to those between figs and fig wasps and yuccas and yucca moths.
Although the genus Glochidion is native only to the Old World, the East Asian species Glochidion puberum has become naturalized at several locations in the U.S. state of Alabama.
In a 2006 revision of the Phyllanthaceae, it was recommended that Glochidion be subsumed in Phyllanthus. New combinations in Phyllanthus have been published for Madagascar and the Pacific Islands, but most remain to be published.
Selected species
, Plants of the World Online accepts 169 species. Selected species include:
Glochidion carrickii Glochidion harveyanum Glochidion hylandii Glochidion stylosum Glochidion symingtonii
Formerly placed here Phyllanthus apodogynus (as Glochidion apodogynum ) Phyllanthus bourdillonii (as Glochidion bourdillonii ) Phyllanthus calocarpus (as Glochidion calocarpum ) Phyllanthus candolleanus (as Glochidion candolleanum ) Phyllanthus comitus (as Glochidion comitum ) Phyllanthus eriocarpus (as Glochidion eriocarpum ) Phyllanthus ferdinandi (as Glochidion ferdinandi ) - cheese tree, buttonwood, pencil cedar, water gum, rain tree Phyllanthus grantii (as Glochidion grantii ) Phyllanthus hohenackeri (as Glochidion hohenackeri ) Phyllanthus hohenackeri var. johnstonei (as Glochidion hohenackeri var. johnstonei ) Phyllanthus lanceolarius (as Glochidion lanceolarium ) Phyllanthus lobocarpus (as Glochidion lobocarpum ) Phyllanthus longfieldiae (as Glochidion longfieldiae ) Phyllanthus manono (as Glochidion manono ) Phyllanthus marchionicus (as Glochidion marchionicum and G. tooviianum ) Phyllanthus mariannensis (as Glochidion marianum ) Phyllanthus moonii (as Glochidion moonii ) Phyllanthus nadeaudii (as Glochidion nadeaudii ) Phyllanthus nemoralis (as Glochidion nemorale ) Phyllanthus obliquus Phyllanthus obliquus var. mollis Phyllanthus obliquus var. obliquus (as Glochidion zeylanicum ) Phyllanthus papenooensis (as Glochidion papenooense ) Phyllanthus pitcairnensis (as Glochidion pitcairnense ) Phyllanthus puber (as Glochidion puberum ) Phyllanthus raiateaensis (as Glochidion moorei ) Phyllanthus raivavensis (as Glochidion raivavense ) Phyllanthus rapaensis (as Glochidion rapaense ) Phyllanthus seemannii (as Glochidion seemannii Müll.-Arg.) Phyllanthus st-johnii (as Glochidion myrtifolium ) Phyllanthus stellatus (as Glochidion stellatum ) Phyllanthus subscandens (as Glochidion insulare ) Phyllanthus taitensis (as Glochidion taitense ) Phyllanthus temehaniensis (as Glochidion temehaniense ) Phyllanthus xerocarpus (as Glochidion xerocarpum )
References
External links
Youtube video of a Glochidion lanceolarium flower being pollinated by an Epicephala lanceolaria moth