Revision of Beilschmiedia (Lauraceae) in the Neotropics

The neotropical species of Beilschmiedia are revised here, inc luding pa T рине еч пар anatomy.ly, biogeographic distribution, and seed dispersal.The systematic position of Bel iedia 1 the fami well a the systematic treatment of its neotropical spec ies, is provided.As a result, 28 s cles were re кай о эру with ^i nee described and 2 newly combined; they Abidal into five species groupings based on ler leaf anatomical characters.Lauraceae contain many taxa that are important ecological and economical components of tropical forests.However, the taxonomy of the family has not been sufficiently clarified at either the genus or species level.Beilschmiedia is an example of such a poorly understood genus.Beilschmiedia is one of the largest pantropical genera in the Lauraceae, comprising about 250 species.It is usually distinguished from other laurel genera by the following characters: bisexual and trimerous flowers, six equal to subequal tepals, six to nine fertile stamens with 2-celled anthers, sta-minal glands only in the third whorl, shallow receptacles, and fruit lacking cupules This genus is still poorly understood taxonomically.Since Meisner (1864) revised Beilschmiedia with the rest of the family, no revision for the entire genus has been written.For neotropical species, Kostermans's (1938) work was the most recent comprehensive revision, and Allen (1945) treated the Mexican and Central American species.These two revisional works were not based on abundant material; 7 of 15 species in Kostermans's revision and 4 of 8 species in Allen's revision were known only