Parinari is a genus of flowering plants in the family Chrysobalanaceae, placed in the order Malpighiales. The genus comprises approximately 40 species of trees and shrubs distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas.
Members of Parinari are characterised by a distinctive combination of features: flowers with zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical) symmetry and 6–10 stamens attached unilaterally within the flower; an ovary positioned at the side or mouth of the receptacle-tube; and leaves whose lower surface is lanate (woolly) with hair-filled stomatal cavities and closely spaced parallel secondary veins. A pair of glands on the leaf petiole is another reliable diagnostic character. The fruits are large and woody, a trait shared across the genus.
Parinari is closely related to the genus Neocarya and belongs to the family Chrysobalanaceae, a group of predominantly tropical woody plants also containing the well-known genera Chrysobalanus and Licania. The fossil record demonstrates deep roots: the oldest known Parinari fruits date from the early Miocene of Ethiopia, Panama, and Colombia, indicating that the genus had achieved a pantropical distribution by at least 20 million years ago.
The geographic range of living species spans sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal east to Sudan and Kenya and south to Namibia and KwaZulu-Natal, eastern Madagascar, Indochina, Indonesia, New Guinea, northern Queensland, and the southwest Pacific, as well as Central and South America from Costa Rica and Trinidad south to southern Brazil. This broad pantropical presence makes Parinari one of the more geographically widespread genera in Chrysobalanaceae.
Distribution
Species of Parinari occur across four major tropical regions: sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal east to Sudan and Kenya, south to Namibia and KwaZulu-Natal), eastern Madagascar, tropical Asia through Indochina, Indonesia, New Guinea, northern Queensland, and the southwest Pacific, and the Neotropics from Costa Rica and Trinidad south to southern Brazil. Fossil fruits from the early Miocene of Ethiopia, Panama, and Colombia show the genus had already achieved this pantropical range some 20 million years ago.
Taxonomy Notes
Parinari belongs to the family Chrysobalanaceae (order Malpighiales) and is most closely related to the genus Neocarya. It can be distinguished from other Chrysobalanaceae genera by its zygomorphic flowers, unilaterally-attached stamens, lanate leaf undersurfaces with hair-filled stomatal cavities, petiolar gland pairs, and large woody fruits. The Plant List recognised 42 accepted species as of 2014.
History
The oldest known fossils attributable to Parinari are fruit remains from the early Miocene (approximately 20–23 Ma) of Ethiopia, Panama, and Colombia, demonstrating that the genus was already pantropically distributed early in the Miocene epoch.
