Visnea

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Asterids
Ordo: Ericales

Familia: Pentaphylacaceae
Tribus: Freziereae
Genus: Visnea
Species: V. mocanera
Name

Visnea L.f., Suppl. Pl. 36. (1782)

Type species: Visnea mocanera L.f., Suppl. Pl. 251. (1782)
monotypic taxon

Synonyms

Heterotypic
Mocanera Juss.

References

Linnaeus, C. 1782. Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium 36.
Govaerts, R. et al. 2021. Visnea in Kew Science Plants of the World online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2021 June 18. Reference page.
Hassler, M. 2021. Visnea. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2021. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published online. Accessed: 2021 June 18. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2021. Visnea. Published online. Accessed: June 19 2021.
Tropicos.org 2021. Visnea. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 18 June 2021.
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Visnea in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed: 09-Oct-10.

Visnea L.f. is a monotypic genus of plant in family Pentaphylacaceae.[1] The genus only contains the following species (but this info may be incomplete); Visnea mocanera L.f. which is native to the Canary Islands and Madeira.[2]

The genus name of Visnea is in honour of Gérard de Visme (c. 1725 – c. 1797), a French and English merchant in Lisbon, Portugal.[3] The Latin specific epithet of mocanera refers to another genus of plants from India and Malesia, (which is now a synonym of Dipterocarpus C.F.Gaertn. The genus was first described and published in Suppl. Pl. on page 36 in 1782.[2]

The fruits of the tree (known as Mocan) are edible.[4][5]

Note; Visnea Steud. ex Endl. is a synonym of Barbacenia, a genus in a different family.[6]
Fossil record

Four fossil seeds of a Visnea sp. have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.[7]
References

Stevens, P.F., Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, retrieved 2014-09-18
"Visnea L.f. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
Hernández-Pérez, Margarita; Frı́as, Juana; Rabana, Rosa; Vidal-Valverde, Concepción (September 1994). "Proximate Composition of "Mocan" (Visnea mocanera L.f.): A Fruit Consumed by Canary Natives Author links open overlay panell". Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 7 (3): 203–207.
Marcelino J. del Arco Aguilar and Octavio Rodríguez Delgado Vegetation of the Canary Islands (2018 ), p. 321, at Google Books
"Barbacenia", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2018-02-10
Angiosperm Fruits and Seeds from the Middle Miocene of Jutland (Denmark) by Else Marie Friis, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters 24:3, 1985