Pterophylla is a genus of trees of the family Cunoniaceae, with species found growing naturally in Madagascar, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific Islands, formerly included in Weinmannia.
Species of Pterophylla are native to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, and to Malesia (Peninsular Thailand and Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Maluku, and the Philippines), Papuasia (New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Solomon Islands), Vanuatu, New Caledonia, New Zealand, and parts of Oceania (Fiji, Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, Samoa Islands, Society Islands, and Tubuai Islands).[1]
Species of Pterophylla grow in lowland tropical forests in Madagascar, and generally in hill and montane tropical forests on the larger islands of Malesia and the Pacific. They are absent from Oceania's low coraline islands, but can be abundant on the higher volcanic islands from 300 to 750+ metres elevation. They are also found in subtropical and temperate forest in New Zealand between 300 and 1180 metres elevation.[2]
The genus was first described by David Don in 1830.[1] It is often treated as a synonym of Weinmannia.[3]
A phylogenomic study by Pillon et al. (2021) concluded that Weinmannia was paraphyletic, and formed two distinct clades. The species belonging to the four Old World sections – Fasciculatae, Inspersae, Spicatae, and Leiospermum – formed a monophyletic group, which is sister to the Old World genera Cunonia and Pancheria. Section Weinmannia, which includes species from the Americas and the Mascarene Islands, is sister to the Old World assemblage. They proposed placing the four Old World sections into the revived genus Pterophylla, with genus Weinmannia limited to the American and Mascarene species of section Weinmannia.[4]
There are 68 accepted species,[1] which are divided among four sections – Pterophylla (formerly Fasciculatae), Leiospermum, Spicatae, and Inspersae.[4]
(mostly Malesia and Papuasia, from Sumatra to Fiji)[5][4]
(mostly Pacific, from the Bismarck Archipelago to the Marquesas)[5][4]
(Madagascar and the Comoros)[5][4]
Pterophylla is a genus of trees of the family Cunoniaceae, with species found growing naturally in Madagascar, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific Islands, formerly included in Weinmannia.
