Monotes

Abstract: A new genus is recognized on the basis of wind‐dispersed fruits from the Eocene of western North America and Miocene of eastern Asia. The fruits consist of an accrescent hypogynous calyx of five obovate sepals and one or more globose fruit bodies. Although the fossils were formerly placed in the extant genera Porana (Convolvulaceae) and Astronium (Anacardiaceae), our investigation of numerous specimens from several floras in the western United States (e.g., Florissant, Green River, Clarno) and Canada (Whipsaw Creek, British Columbia) and the Yilan and Shanwang floras of China reveals unique characters that indicate that the fossils are a distinct genus, which we name Chaneya. Unlike Porana and Astronium, the fossil calyces have stomata that are longitudinally aligned, and early stages of fruit development show a gynoecium of five apocarpous carpels, of which only one or two usually enlarge at maturity. Precise systematic placement of the fossil genus is uncertain, but similarities to the extant Picrasma o...

Abstract: The placement of a recently discovered South American monotypic genus,Pseudomonotes tropenbosii, in subfam.Monotoideae (Dipterocarpaceae) extends the geographical range of the subfamily from Africa to the Neotropics. Although morphological and anatomical evidence suggest similarities betweenPseudomonotes andMonotes, the close alliance of these two genera was questionable due to their disjunct distribution and a lack of phylogenetic analysis. In the present study, we reconstructed the phylogeny ofPseudomonotes and other putatively related taxa usingrbcL sequence data. The analysis ofrbcL sequences of 20 taxa belonging to 15 genera and eight families recovered a single most parsimonious tree. The genusSarcolaena (Sarcolaenaceae) formed a clade sister to the monophyleticDipterocarpaceae clade.Monotes andPseudomonotes formed a strongly supported group, sister to the monophyletic clade withPakaraimaea and the remaining Asiatic dipterocarp species studied. The study strongly supports the placement ofPseudomonotes within subfam.Monotoideae of theDipterocarpaceae.

Abstract: The primary lowland forest of tropical Southeast Asia west of Wallace's Line have the peculiar feature that they are dominated as regards the numbers of emergent trees and volume of timber by a single family, the Dipterocarpaceae. The timber produced by trees belonging to this family is often sold in the United States under the rather misleading name Philippine mahogany. Renewed interest in this family among scientists and environmentalists in the U.S.A. stems from the studies of military forest destruction in Vietnam, and the opening up of large new American timber concession holdings in Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra. There is an awareness that the Dipterocarpaceae are a unique object for biosystematic and plant geographic study besides being the most valuable renewable natural resources of extensive areas of Southeast Asia (Foxworthy, 1946; Slooten, 1961; Ashton, 1969b; Jong & Lethbridge, 1967). They are, as regards sizes of trees, biomass and number of species, the most successful family among all Angiosperm families in Southeast Asia. The unexploited forests of Borneo and Sumatra represent a fortune of many billions of dollars in timber value. From a purely scientific point of view, the Dipterocarpaceae are extremely interesting because they occur in areas which have had a relatively stable geology since the Cretaceous, probably the time of their origin. Since that time they have spread over Southeast Asia and over Africa; possibly they occur in disguised forms also in the American tropics as plants now considered to belong to Tiliaceae. In their leaf forms and indumentum they show Malvalean characters. The flowers of the African Monotes have short androgynophores, and their barks have slime ducts as in some Tiliaceae. The Dipterocarpaceae proper have resin canals in their woods and the flowers have calyx lobes which enlarge

Abstract: West African forests extend from South Senegal to Ivory Coast. In these forests, ectomycorrhizal trees are locally diversified and/or abundant. They belong to the following botanical families: Caesalpiniaceae (tribes Detariae and Amherstiae), Dipterocarpaceae (genus Monotes) and Euphorbiaceae (genus Uapaca). The diversity of the ectomycorrhizal fungi linked to these trees is important and includes many species in Russula, Lactarius, Amanita, Cantharellus and Boletus sensu lato. Several Russula, Amanita and Cantharellus species of West Africa are certainly edible as most of them are consumed elsewhere in Central, East or Austral Africa. However, in West Africa the consumption of edible fungi by local peoples is not yet well documented although as non-timber forest products, wild edible mushrooms are certainly under-exploited. It is assumed that, as elsewhere in Africa, peoples living in, or nearby forested areas, are likely to be more appreciative of wild mushrooms than those of the savannahs who are generally mycophobic.