PlantaeDB Logo
Login Sign-up

Genus Perrottetia in Family Dipentodontaceae

In botanical taxonomy, a genus (plural genera) is a rank used to group closely related species within a family. In the hierarchy, genus sits below family and above species.

Genera are defined by shared morphological, anatomical, and genetic characteristics (for example, features of flowers, fruits, seeds, or leaves) that indicate a close evolutionary relationship among the species they contain.

Each genus can include one or more species. Examples include Rosa (roses) and Solanum (nightshades, including tomato and eggplant).

Do you wish to read more about plant taxonomy? Click here!

Genus Description

Suggest a correction!

Perrottetia Kunth belongs to Celastraceae (Crossosomatales) and includes about 16 accepted species. It is distributed in the tropics of the Americas from Mexico and the Caribbean to northern South America, in the tropical Andes and Amazonian lowlands, and in tropical Asia from the Himalayas to southern China and through Malesia to the western Pacific. The type species is Perrottetia ovata Kunth (WFO, 2024; IPNI, 2024).

The genus is diagnosed by woody habit with opposite to subopposite leaves; small caducous stipules; small, greenish to whitish, actinomorphic, unisexual to bisexual flowers borne in axillary thyrses; a 5-lobed calyx without petals; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits; and a superior to half-inferior ovary with axile placentation that matures into a drupe with a thin exocarp (Matthews & Endress, 2004). Perrottetia thus differs from many Celastraceae by its opposite leaves and fleshy fruits.

Species richness is distributed across two main disjunct areas: a primarily Asian complex (e.g., P. orientalis in mainland Asia) and an American complex (e.g., P. alpestris, P. ovata, P. quaternata in the Neotropics). Centers of diversity occur in the northern Andes and the Himalayan–Indochinese region. Plants typically occupy moist lowland to lower montane forest understories, often by streams, with many species recorded from mid elevations (Hallé, 1986).

Pollination and dispersal are poorly documented, but entomophily is inferred from the small, greenish flowers (Matthews & Endress, 2004). Fruits are reported as drupes with fleshy exocarps, suggesting vertebrate dispersal, although details of frugivores remain sparse. Chromosome counts are unavailable or inconsistent for the genus and should be regarded as unestablished without robustly cited surveys.

Taxonomically, Perrottetia has long been treated as the type of Dipentodontaceae (Hallé, 1986), but recent phylogenies place it firmly within Celastraceae, where it constitutes a supported clade sister to the Euonymus–Celastrus lineage (Simmons et al., 2012). In the APG framework it is therefore recognized in Celastraceae rather than in a separate family (APG IV, 2016; Matthews & Endress, 2004). No widely adopted infrageneric system is stable, and circumscriptions of some Neotropical species remain unsettled.

The genus is of limited economic relevance. A few species are occasionally cultivated as ornamental shrubs in shaded tropical gardens and are valued for their glossy foliage and showy drupes (Hallé, 1986). Otherwise it is not a significant source of timber or crops.

Conservation status is unevenly documented; many taxa lack formal assessments, and habitat loss in lowland and montane forests constitutes the primary threat. Targeted surveys and phylogenetic work are required to clarify species limits and conservation priorities (WFO, 2024; Simmon et al., 2012; Hallé, 1986).

Pick a Species to see its components: