Endiandra

Endiandra is a genus of about 126 species of plants, mainly trees, in the laurel family Lauraceae. They are commonly called "walnut" despite not being related to the Northern Hemisphere walnuts (Juglans spp.) which are in the family Juglandaceae.

Ecology
Shrubs and trees with lauroid leaves mostly, with bisexual flowers, usually with a large edible berry ovoid or globose, and seated directly on the pedicel. The seeds are dispersed by animals and birds. They have a broad distribution across South East Asia, Australia and into the western Pacific Ocean.

Endiandra is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. Fossils show that before glaciations, when the climate was more humid and mild, species were distributed more widely. They are distributed in Asia, from India to Indochina, China, Malaysia, Australia, and Pacific islands, with 38 species endemic to Australia.

In Australia, they are often used as screen trees due to the thick foliage of a number of their species. Quite a few of the Australian species are rare, such as Endiandra globosa, Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata and Endiandra floydii.

The drying of the area during the glaciations caused Endiandra to retreat to the mildest climate refuges, including oceanic and southern islands and wetter mountain areas. With the end of the last glacial period, Endiandra recovered some of its former range. They are mostly relicts of a type of vegetation disappeared, which originally covered much of the mainland of Australia, South America, Antarctica, South Africa, North America and other lands when their climate were more humid and warm. Although warm Cloud forests disappeared during the glaciations, they re-colonized large areas every time the weather was favorable again. Most of the cloud forests are believed to have retreated and advanced during successive geological eras, and their species adapted to warm and wet gradually retreated and advanced, replaced by more cold-tolerant or drought-tolerant sclerophyll plant communities. Many of the then existing species became extinct because they could not cross the barriers posed by new oceans, mountains and deserts, but others found refuge as species relict in coastal areas and Islands.

Some species are well adapted to tropical dry or deciduous forests, including monsoon forests and dry monsoon forest. Some Endiandra present a convergent evolution due to ecological or physical drivers toward a similar solution, including analogous structures with species adapted to different environments, for example with plants adapted to Laurel forest habitat. These Endiandra resemble other genera in the family Lauraceae, and their leaves are lauroid type with berries eaten and dispersed mostly by birds. Others are even adapted to very wet media.

Some species are endangered and others have a very specialized ecological niche and consequently occupy small or specific areas. Although the majority of the species are the products of parapatric speciation, some groups have an ancient Gondwanan distribution and some groups responded to favourable climatic periods as opportunistic species and expanded across the available habitat, these last groups occur across wide distribution with close relatives and few species, indicating the recent divergence of these species.

Many species are having edible fruits. Some birds and bats that are specialised frugivores tend to eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, which functions for Biological dispersal. Others swallow the fruit and pass the seed intact through the gut. An incomplete list of birds that rely heavily on the fruit for their diet include members of the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Toucan. The fruits are an important food source for Palaeognathae highly dependent. Seed dispersal of various species in the genus is also carried out by fishes and big and small mammals as Pachyderms, Bovids, monkeys, arboreal rodents, porcupines, or possums.

Species
There were 126 accepted species as of May 2021. These are:


 * Endiandra acuminata C.T.White
 * Endiandra aggregata Kosterm.
 * Endiandra albiramea Kosterm.
 * Endiandra aneityensis Guillaumin
 * Endiandra anthropophagorum Domin
 * Endiandra archboldiana C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra areolata Arifiani
 * Endiandra arfakensis Kosterm.
 * Endiandra asymmerrica Teschner
 * Endiandra baillonii (Pancher & Sebert) Guillaumin
 * Endiandra beccariana Kosterm.
 * Endiandra bellendenkerana B.Hyland
 * Endiandra bessaphila B.Hyland
 * Endiandra brassii C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra bullata (C.K.Allen) Kosterm.
 * Endiandra carrii Kosterm.
 * Endiandra chartacea Kosterm.
 * Endiandra clavigera Kosterm.
 * Endiandra clemensii C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra collinsii B.Hyland
 * Endiandra compressa C.T.White – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra cooperana B.Hyland
 * Endiandra coriacea Merr.
 * Endiandra cowleyana F.M.Bailey
 * Endiandra crassiflora C.T.White & W.D.Francis
 * Endiandra cuneata Miq.
 * Endiandra cyphellophora Kosterm.
 * Endiandra dichrophylla F.Muell.
 * Endiandra dielsiana Teschner
 * Endiandra discolor Benth. – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra djamuensis Kosterm.
 * Endiandra dolichocarpa S.K.Lee & Y.T.Wei
 * Endiandra elaeocarpa Gillespie
 * Endiandra elongata Arifiani
 * Endiandra engleriana Teschner
 * Endiandra euadenia Kosterm.
 * Endiandra eusideroxylocarpa Kosterm.
 * Endiandra faceta Kosterm.
 * Endiandra ferruginea Teschner
 * Endiandra firma Nees
 * Endiandra flavinervis Teschner
 * Endiandra floydii B.Hyland – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra forbesii Gamble
 * Endiandra formicaria Kosterm.
 * Endiandra fulva Teschner
 * Endiandra gem Kosterm.
 * Endiandra gemopsis Kosterm.
 * Endiandra gillespiei A.C.Sm.
 * Endiandra glauca R.Br.
 * Endiandra globosa Maiden & Betche – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra grandifolia Teschner
 * Endiandra grayi B.Hyland
 * Endiandra hainanensis Merr. & F.P.Metcalf
 * Endiandra havelii Kosterm.
 * Endiandra hayesii Kosterm. – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra holttumii M.R.Hend.
 * Endiandra hypotephra F.Muell. – Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra immersa Arifiani
 * Endiandra impressicosta C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra insignis (F.M.Bailey) F.M.Bailey
 * Endiandra introrsa C.T.White – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra invasiorum Kosterm.
 * Endiandra javanica Kamik.
 * Endiandra jonesii B.Hyland
 * Endiandra kingiana Gamble
 * Endiandra lanata Arifiani
 * Endiandra latifolia Kosterm.
 * Endiandra laxiflora Merr.
 * Endiandra lecardii Guillaumin
 * Endiandra ledermannii Teschner
 * Endiandra leptodendron B.Hyland
 * Endiandra limnophila B.Hyland
 * Endiandra longipedicellata C.T.White
 * Endiandra luteola A.C.Sm.
 * Endiandra macrophylla (Blume) Boerl.
 * Endiandra macrostemon Kosterm.
 * Endiandra magnilimba Kosterm.
 * Endiandra maingayi Hook.f.
 * Endiandra merrillii Kamik.
 * Endiandra microneura C.T.White
 * Endiandra microphylla Teschner
 * Endiandra minutiflora Kosterm.
 * Endiandra × monothyra B.Hyland
 * Endiandra montana C.T.White
 * Endiandra monticola A.C.Sm.
 * Endiandra muelleri Meisn. – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra multiflora Teschner
 * Endiandra neocaledonica Kosterm.
 * Endiandra oblonga Teschner
 * Endiandra ochracea Kosterm.
 * Endiandra oviformis Kosterm.
 * Endiandra palmerstonii (F.M.Bailey) C.T.White
 * Endiandra papuana Lauterb.
 * Endiandra phaeocarpa B.Hyland
 * Endiandra pilosa Kosterm.
 * Endiandra polyneura Schltr.
 * Endiandra poueboensis Guillaumin
 * Endiandra praeclara Gamble
 * Endiandra pubens Meisn. – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra recurva C.T.White
 * Endiandra reticulata Gillespie
 * Endiandra rhizophoretum Kosterm. ex Arifiani
 * Endiandra rigidior Kosterm.
 * Endiandra rubescens (Blume) Miq.
 * Endiandra sankeyana F.M.Bailey
 * Endiandra schlechteri Teschner
 * Endiandra scrobiculata Kosterm. ex Kochummen
 * Endiandra sebertii Guillaumin
 * Endiandra sericea Kosterm.
 * Endiandra sideroxylon B.Hyland
 * Endiandra sieberi Nees – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra sleumeri Kosterm.
 * Endiandra solomonensis C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra spathulata Kosterm.
 * Endiandra sphaerica C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra sulavesiana Kosterm.
 * Endiandra teschneri Kamik.
 * Endiandra teschneriana C.K.Allen
 * Endiandra trichotosa A.C.Sm.
 * Endiandra tryphera A.C.Sm.
 * Endiandra versteeghii Kosterm.
 * Endiandra virens F.Muell. – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
 * Endiandra whitmorei Kosterm.
 * Endiandra wolfei B.Hyland
 * Endiandra wongawallanensis L.Weber
 * Endiandra wrayi Gamble
 * Endiandra xanthocarpa B.Hyland
 * Endiandra xylophylla Kosterm.