Picconia DC.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Picconia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/picconia/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Family

  • Oleaceae

Glossary

herbarium
A collection of preserved plant specimens; also the building in which such specimens are housed.
Macaronesia
The subtropical islands of the north Atlantic: the Azores Canary Islands Cape Verde Islands and Madeira.
bud
Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
decussate
Leaf arrangement where the leaves are in opposite pairs each pair at right angles to the preceding pair (as e.g. the scale leaves of Cupressaceae).
imbricate
Overlapping.
inflorescence
Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Picconia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/picconia/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

There are two species of Picconia, one in the Azores (P. azorica), the other in the Canary Islands and Madeira (P. excelsa). They are evergreen shrubs or small trees with simple, opposite, entire or rarely serrulate leaves. Inflorescences are axillary, decussate racemes with semi-persistent bracts enclosing the flowers. The flowers are hermaphrodite; the calyx small and four-lobed; the corolla also four-lobed, the lobes alternating from the calyx lobes; stamens two. The fruit is a drupe (Green 2004).

Picconia excelsa grows well in coastal southern England and Ireland and is capable of forming large evergreen trees in mild conditions. Both species can be propagated from cuttings, or by seed if available.

Bean’s Trees and Shrubs

Picconia

A genus containing two species of small evergreen trees or shrubs native to Macaronesia: P. excelsa (Ait.) DC. from Madeira and the Canary Islands and P. azorica (Tutin) Knobl. from the Azores. It lies within the Olea/Osmanthus complex of genera and may be distinguished by a combination of characters: the decussate racemose inflorescence with characteristic large deciduous, concave, floccose-ciliolate, pale green bracts, the extremely short corolla tube and petals imbricate in early bud.

Footnotes

Contributed by P. S. Green of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

From the Supplement (Vol.V)

The Abbotsbury specimen of P. excelsa is 59 × 812 ft (1980), and the other mentioned, at Caerhays, 33 × 334 + 312 ft (1975).