Revisional study of neotropical Beilschmiedia species (Lauraceae ...

only from the type collections. And since Kostermans' s revision, 15 names have been
already described under Beilschmiedia in the neotropics. A revision for neotropical
Beilschmiedia species, being up to date and with n1ore material, is needed for an
understanding of the whole genus and also the neotropical Lauraceae.
Fortunately, as Burger (1988) mentions, Latin American botanists are actively
collecting neotropical plants including Lauraceae these days. Especially, van der Werff in the
Missouri Botanical Garden has been working on a number of projects on a systematic study
of Lauraceae coupled with intensive collecting of the family in the neotropics. I had an
opportunity to study at Missouri Botanical Garden from fall in 1994 to spring in 1997, and
took the advantage to work on neotropical Beilschmiedia species under van der Werff's
supervision.
In this study I revised neotropical Beilschmiedia species in which I recognize 27
species, with general descriptions of morphology, anatomy, palynology, karyology,
distribution, reproductive biology, seed dispersal, and systematic position of the species in
the fmnily in the second chapter. And for better understanding of relationships of the
species, I employed leaf anatomy in the third chapter. Neotropical Beilschmiedia species
have relatively similar flowers and fruits except for a few species, and it is more reasonable
to study vegetative n1orphology rather than reproductive morphology for systen1atics of the
species. An1ong neotropical Beilscluniedia species, there appear to be two groups, one group
of the species alternate leaves and fine ramification (ramification is here defined as ultimate
branching patterns in leaf veins), and another group of the species with opposite leaves and
coarse ratnification. Preliminary observation (Christophel, pers. comm.) indicated that the
two groups also differ in characters of the cuticle. Therefore, I investigated leaf anaton1ical
characters (venation patterns, cuticular and leaf section characters) for all the neotropical
Beilschrniedia species available in order to discuss the following; 1) whether the cuticular
and leaf section characters support the grouping based on phyllotaxis and venation patterns,
and 2) how we can incorporate leaf-anatomical characters in the classification of neotropical
Beilschmiedia species. These studies would not only help to know neotropical Beilschmiedia
species further, but would also give an important step to understand whole Beilschmiedia,
one of the largest genera in Lauraceae.
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