Abstract
A revision of the Peninsular Malaysian species of Beilschmiedia (Lauraceae) is presented with a summary of the taxonomic history of the group, key, full descriptions, distribution maps, conservation assessments, ecological information, ethno-botanical notes and a discussion of morphology. In this treatment, 18 species are recognised; six names are lectotypified (B. insignis, B. kunstleri, B. maingayi, B. membranacea, B. roxburghiana and B. scortechinii) and five are placed into synonymy for the first time; one name is validly published for the first time (B. atra) and one species is recognised and described here as new to science (B. kochummenii). Most species are considered to be common (Least Concern), but B. atra must be considered to be extinct, two species are Critically Endangered (B. kochummenii and B. membranacea), four are Endangered (B. lumutensis, B. penangiana, B. scortechinii, B. wallichiana) and one is listed as Vulnerable (B. insignis).
Highlights
The genus Beilschmiedia Nees was first described by Nees von Esenbeck in Wallich (1831) and is named after Karl Traugott Beilschmied, a chemist and botanist (1793 –1848), who wrote mainly about plant geography
His findings were confirmed by later molecular studies (Rohwer et al 2014), and Beilschmiedia is placed in the Cryptocarya group as one of the early divergent clades within the family (Rohwer 2000, Rohwer et al 2014)
An unpublished MSc thesis (Tetsana 2005) recognised 16 species in Thailand, of which two were new to science, eight were newly recorded for the country, and only four (25 %) were considered endemic; most of the non-endemics that occur in Thailand have distributions that extend to China, India and Myanmar rather than to Peninsular Malaysia
Summary
The genus Beilschmiedia Nees was first described by Nees von Esenbeck in Wallich (1831) and is named after Karl Traugott Beilschmied, a chemist and botanist (1793 –1848), who wrote mainly about plant geography. Three different phyllotactic arrangements occur within this genus: opposite, alternate or rarely spiral This last pattern is observed in the neotropical and the Bornean species, where it was used as one of the major characters in the classification of Nishida (1999, 2008). Given that there are several species known with this character, I think it is sufficiently important to warrant placing these species in their own group The morphology of these structures is important in species recognition in the closely related genus Cryptocarya (De Kok 2015, 2016), but the variation in Beilschmiedia is very limited and this character is hardly used in this treatment. Some species have a small constriction at the apex of the fruit stalk (see Nishida 2005), a feature that is absent in Cryptocarya (De Kok 2015, 2016)
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