Pisonia brunoniana

Pisonia brunoniana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Nyctaginaceae
Genus: Pisonia
Species: P. brunoniana
Binomial name
Pisonia brunoniana
Endl.
Synonyms

Pisonia sinclairii Hook.f.
Heimerliodendron brunonianum (Endl.) Skottsb.

Pisonia brunoniana is a species of flowering tree in the Nyctaginaceae family that is native to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Hawaiʻi. The common names in New Zealand are parapara or birdcatcher tree.

Description

Pisonia brunoniana is a small, spreading tree to 6 metres (20 ft) or more tall. The wood is soft and the branches are brittle. The large leaves are opposite or ternate, glabrous, and glossy, entire (simple with smooth margins), and obtuse to rounded at apex. The inflorescence is paniculate, many-flowered, and the flowers are unisexual. The very sticky fruits, in which small birds are often trapped, are narrowly ellipsoidal, and 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18 in) long, having five ribs.

Distribution in New Zealand

The seeds of P. brunoniana turn black and sticky as they ripen

In New Zealand, Pisonia brunoniana grows in coastal forest on Raoul Island in the Kermadec group, on the Three Kings Islands, and in the North Island in scattered locations from Whangape Harbour to Mangawhai. Historically, it grew near Auckland, on the Coromandel Peninsula and at East Cape. It is now mainly found on offshore islands, especially rodent-free islands, where it often forms an important understorey component of mixed-broadleaf forest.

The plant is almost extinct in the North Island, partly because the large leaves of P. brunoniana are eagerly eaten by browsing animals such as possums, goats and feral cattle. However the main threat to accessible populations is the cutting down of trees by people trying to prevent small songbirds from becoming trapped by the sticky seeds.[1]

The plant is reasonably common in cultivation as a decorative tree in New Zealand, especially in the northern North Island. Two variegated cultivars are sold as P. brunoniana in New Zealand nurseries, although one of these, which has leaves extensively marbled with white, may in fact be P. umbellifera, a similar species which occurs throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific.

In Hawaiʻi

In Hawaiʻi, where it is known as pāpala kēpau, P. brunoniana is most common in dry to mesic habitats. Although abundant in certain locations, such as Kīpuka Puaulu, it has a relatively restricted distribution compared to the related species P. sandwicensis and P. umbellifera. The sticky fruits were employed by the Hawaiian kia manu (bird catchers) to trap birds in order to collect feathers for capes and other objects.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Research in the Seychelles into seabird deaths caused by a related species, Pisonia grandis, indicates that the sticky fruits were evolved to increase the likelihood that they will be transferred on the plumage of a seabird to a distant island, thus acting to promote the long-distance dispersal of the species (Nature Seychelles, Seabirds killed by trees: accident or design?. Accessed 11 May 2007).
  2. ↑ Little Jr., Elbert L.; Roger G. Skolmen (1989). "Pāpala kēpau" (PDF). United States Forest Service.

References

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