Elattostachys is a genus of roughly 21 tree species in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, order Sapindales. The genus was formally described in 1879 by Bavarian botanist Ludwig A. T. Radlkofer, based on a section (Cupania sect. Elattostachys) that Carl Ludwig Blume had published in 1849; in 1992–93 Dutch botanist Frits Adema revised the genus, publishing new species and clarifying earlier names across the Pacific Islands and Malesia.
Species grow naturally across a broad swath of the western Pacific and Malesia, including New Guinea, the Moluccas, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Timor, Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Niue, Tonga, Palau (Caroline Islands), and the Philippines. New Guinea is the genus's centre of diversity, with nine recognised species. In Australia, Elattostachys is confined to the northern half of the eastern coastal zone, from around Newcastle, New South Wales, north through eastern Queensland to Cape York Peninsula.
A few Australian members carry common names referencing tamarind — E. xylocarpa is known as "white tamarind" and E. nervosa as the "beetroot tree" — though, like other Australian Sapindaceae called tamarinds, they are not closely related to the true tamarind, a member of the legume family.
Several range-restricted Elattostachys species are considered threatened: the IUCN's 1998 assessment listed the New Guinea endemics E. aiyurensis, E. goropuensis and E. rubrofructus, the Sulawesi endemic E. erythrocarpum, and the New Caledonia endemic E. dzumacensis as Vulnerable to global extinction.
Distribution
Elattostachys occurs across New Guinea (its centre of diversity), the Moluccas, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Timor, Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Niue, Tonga, Palau, and the Philippines. In Australia it is restricted to the eastern coastal zone from the Newcastle region of New South Wales north to Cape York Peninsula, Queensland.
Conservation
Several range-restricted species were assessed as Vulnerable to global extinction in the IUCN's 1998 assessment: the New Guinea endemics E. aiyurensis, E. goropuensis and E. rubrofructus, the Sulawesi endemic E. erythrocarpum, and the New Caledonia endemic E. dzumacensis.
Taxonomy
The genus was described in 1879 by Ludwig A. T. Radlkofer, based on Carl Ludwig Blume's 1849 Cupania sect. Elattostachys, and placed in family Sapindaceae, order Sapindales. Dutch botanist Frits Adema revised the genus in 1992–93, publishing several new species and clarifying earlier names across Malesia and the Pacific Islands.
