24-570: See text. Complete list Persea is a genus of about 150 species of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae . The best-known member of the genus is the avocado , P. americana , widely cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible fruit . They are medium-size trees, 15–30 m (49.2–98.4 ft) tall at maturity. The leaves are simple, lanceolate to broad lanceolate, varying with species from 5–30 cm (1.97–11.81 in) long and 2–12 cm (0.79–4.72 in) broad, and arranged spirally or alternately on
48-586: A disjunct distribution, with about 70 Neotropical species, ranging from Brazil and Chile in South America to Central America and Mexico , the Caribbean , and the southeastern United States; a single species, P. indica , endemic to Madeira and the Canary Islands off northwest Africa; and 80 species inhabiting east and southeast Asia . None of the species are very tolerant of severe winter cold, with
72-412: A valuable food supply for quetzals , trogoniform birds that live in the montane rainforests of Mesoamerica. In particular, the resplendent quetzal 's favorite fruits are berries of wild relatives of the avocado . Their differing maturing times in the cloudforest determine the migratory movements of the quetzals to differing elevation levels in the forests. With a gape width of 21 mm (0.83 in),
96-472: Is a genus of 99 accepted number species of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae . The best-known member of the genus is the avocado , P. americana , widely cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible fruit . There are more than 200 synonyms in the genus. The following list is according to The Plant List . Quetzal Quetzals ( / k ɛ t ˈ s ɑː l , ˈ k ɛ t s əl / ) are strikingly colored birds in
120-543: Is also sometimes included in Persea . In a phylogenetic analysis of the " Persea group", which also includes Alseodaphne , Phoebe , Nothaphoebe , Dehaasia and Apollonias , Persea was found to be mostly monophyletic, with Apollonias barbujana from the Canary Islands nested within the core Persea group. The species Persea nudigemma was found to be more closely related to Phoebe , while Persea sphaerocarpa
144-465: Is eliminating their natural habitat causing them to relocate to other areas. Resplendent Quetzals are known to relocate in lower elevated areas during the summertime when precipitation is known to increase, their patterns in movement are most likely correlated to a surplus of ripe Lauraceae fruits. The name quetzal is from Nahuatl quetzalli [keˈt͡salːi] , "large brilliant tail feather" ( American Audubon Dictionary ) or "tail coverts of
168-494: Is the national bird of Guatemala because of its vibrant colour and cultural significance to the Maya . Quetzals have iridescent green or golden-green wing coverts , back, chest and head, with a red belly. Their wings are suited to camouflage under rainy conditions, because their feathers blend well with wet and shiny green area. They are strongly sexually dimorphic , and parts of the females' plumage are brown or grey. The tails of
192-474: Is treated in three subgenera. The Asian subgenus Machilus is treated in a separate genus Machilus by many authors, including in the Flora of China , while graft-incompatibility between subgenus Persea and subgenus Eriodaphne suggests that these too may be better treated as distinct genera, in fact Kostermans (1993) founded the genus Mutisiopersea for these. Another closely related genus, Beilschmiedia ,
216-721: The Canary Islands and Madeira . Fossil evidence indicates that the genus originated in West Africa during the Paleocene , and spread to Asia, to South America, and to Europe and thence to North America . It is thought that the gradual drying of Africa, west Asia, and the Mediterranean from the Oligocene to the Pleistocene , and the glaciation of Europe during the Pleistocene, caused
240-537: The Near Threatened status. Pharomachrus mocinno is dependent on standing dead and mature trees for breeding holes, which are only formed in primary cloud forest; the species' breeding behavior is linked to the long term existence of these forests such as the few remaining in highland Guatemala. The remaining are not considered threatened by the IUCN and all are locally common. Among the most concentrated populations are
264-547: The trogon family. They are found in forests , especially in humid highlands , with the five species from the genus Pharomachrus being exclusively Neotropical , while a single species, the eared quetzal , Euptilotis neoxenus , is found in Guatemala, sometimes in Mexico and very locally in the southernmost United States. In the highlands of the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, Zacatecas, Jalisco, and Michoacán,
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#1732898627826288-727: The Baja Verapaz part of the Sierra de las Minas and the Chicabnab Reserve of Alta Verapaz. However, it should be kept in mind while despite the fact that quetzals typically inhabit cloud forests, the fact that they are being divided into much smaller patches is what is known as a principal threat to their survival. Another major threat to these animals is poaching . Since their feathers are still seen as an artifact poachers use their feather as trade to foreign tourists and museum collectors, but also are used for medicines and rituals. Deforestation
312-452: The area of Northern Guatemala known as the Petén) which is the national bird and the name of the currency of Guatemala. It still often refers to that bird specifically but now also names all the species of the genera Pharomachrus and Euptilotis . Pharomachrus is from Ancient Greek φάρος pharos , "mantle", and μακρός makros , "long", referring to the wing and tail coverts of
336-489: The eared quetzal can be found from northwest to west-central Mexico. It is a Mesoamerican indigenous species, but some reports show that it occasionally travels and nests in southeastern Arizona and New Mexico in the United States . June to October is the mating season for eared quetzals. Quetzals are fairly large (all over 32 cm (13 in) long), slightly bigger than other trogon species. The resplendent quetzal
360-412: The extinction of the genus across these regions, resulting in the present distribution. Since this habitat is constantly threatened by encroaching agriculture, the laurel forest animal or vegetal species have already become rare in many of its former habitats and are threatened by further habitat loss. In Mesoamerica, Persea proliferated into many new species, and the berries of some of them constitute
384-510: The freezing of Antarctica about 20 million years ago and the formation of the Benguela current , others, which also reached South America and Mesoamerica, such as Beilschmiedia and Nectandra are still surviving today in Africa in a number of species. The genus, however, died out in Africa, except for P. indica , which is, today, a threatened species that survives in the fog-shrouded mountains of
408-559: The hardiest, P. borbonia , P. ichangensis and P. lingue , surviving temperatures down to about −12 °C (10.4 °F); they also require continuously moist soil, and do not tolerate drought. A number of these species are found in forests that face threats of destruction or deforestation ; for example, P. lingue in Central Chile. The family Lauraceae was part of the land flora of Gondwana , and many genera had migrated to South America via Antarctica over ocean landbridges by
432-427: The male quetzals may take up to three years after reaching maturity to grow to the maximum length. These largely solitary birds feed on fruits, berries, insects and small vertebrates (such as frogs). Even with their famous bright plumage, they can be hard to see in their natural wooded habitats. None of the many quetzal species are under immediate threat in the wild, although the eared and resplendent quetzal are at
456-427: The quetzal swallows the small berry (aguacatillo) whole, which he catches while flying through the lower canopy of the tree, and then regurgitates the seed within 100 meters (328 ft) from the tree. Wheelright in 1983 observed that parent quetzals take far less time intervals to deliver fruits to the young brood than insects or lizards, reflecting the ease of procuring fruits, as opposed to capturing animal prey. Since
480-604: The quetzal" ( Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary ), from the Nahuatl root quetz = "stand up" used to refer to an upstanding plume of feathers. The word entered English through Spanish . The quetzal plays a central role in Mesoamerican mythology and is associated with the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl . The word quetzal was originally used for just the resplendent quetzal , the long-tailed quetzal of Guatemala , (more specifically
504-514: The stems. The flowers are in short panicles, with six small greenish-yellow perianth segments 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) long, nine stamens and an ovary with a single embryo. The fruit is an oval or pear-shaped berry , with a fleshy outer covering surrounding the single seed ; size is very variable among the species, from 1–1.5 cm (0.39–0.59 inches) in e.g. P. borbonia and P. indica , up to 10–20 cm (3.94–7.87 inches) in some cultivars of P. americana . The species of Persea have
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#1732898627826528-527: The time of the Paleocene . From South America they spread over most of the continent. When the North American and South American tectonic plates joined in the late Neogene , volcanic mountain building created island chains which later formed the Mesoamerican landbridge . Pliocene elevation created new habitats for speciation. While some genera died out in increasingly xerophytic mainland Africa, starting with
552-494: The young are fed exclusively berries in the first 2 weeks after hatching, these berries must be of high nutritional value. Usually only the total percentage of water, sugar, nitrogen, crude fats and carbohydrates are reported by ornithologists. Persea species are also used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including giant leopard moth , Coleophora octagonella (which feeds exclusively on P. carolinensis ) and Hypercompe indecisa . The genus Persea
576-858: Was found to be nested within a group of Alseodaphne species. Based on Mac. robusta Mac. sp. W14071 Mac. sp. W14068 Pho. minutiflora Mac. japonica Mac. decursinervis Mac. grijsii Mac. platycarpa Mac. yunnanensis Mac. kwangtungensis Mac. oculodracontis Mac. duthiei Mac. gamblei Mac. oreophila Mac. leptophylla Pho. faberi Mac. salicoides Mac. pomifera Mac. salicina Mac. thunbergii Mac. breviflora Mac. pingii Mac. shweliensis Mac gongshanensis Mac. phoenicis Mac. monticola Deh. caesia Deh. hainanensis Als. sp. W17084 Deh. sp. L20070187 Als. semecarpifolia Als. huanglianshanensis Als. gigaphylla Not. umbelliflora Deh. sp. A34 Deh. incrassata Per. aurata List of Persea species Persea
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