Scolopia is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Salicaceae (the willow family), placed within the order Malpighiales. The genus was described by J.C.D. von Schreber (authorship Schreb.) and comprises roughly 16 to several dozen species depending on the circumscription, distributed across the Old World tropics and subtropics — principally tropical Africa, Madagascar, South and Southeast Asia, and northern Australia.
Members of Scolopia are typically woody plants occurring in forest habitats, ranging from lowland rainforest to Afromontane forest at higher elevations. Scolopia braunii, for example, is an Australian rainforest tree, while Scolopia mundii is a well-known component of South African Afromontane forest. The genus is ecologically notable as a larval host plant for the rustic butterfly (Cupha erymanthis, family Nymphalidae), whose caterpillars feed on Scolopia foliage across parts of Asia.
Salicaceae, the family to which Scolopia belongs, was long restricted to willows and poplars but is now understood in a broadly circumscribed sense following molecular phylogenetics, encompassing numerous tropical woody genera including Scolopia. Within Malpighiales, Salicaceae sits among a diverse radiation of dicotyledonous plants.
Distribution
Scolopia is an Old World genus with species distributed across tropical and subtropical Africa (including South Africa and Madagascar), South and Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. Individual species occupy habitats ranging from lowland rainforest to Afromontane montane forest.
Ecology
Scolopia species serve as larval food plants for the rustic butterfly (Cupha erymanthis, Nymphalidae), a brush-footed butterfly whose caterpillars feed on this genus across parts of Asia.
Taxonomy Notes
The genus was described by J.C.D. von Schreber (Scolopia Schreb.) and is placed in Salicaceae, order Malpighiales. Salicaceae in its modern, broadly circumscribed sense (following molecular systematics) encompasses numerous tropical woody genera well beyond willows and poplars, and Scolopia is one of these included lineages.
