Atractocarpus facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Atractocarpus
Atractocarpus fitzalanii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Rubiaceae
Subfamily:	Ixoroideae
Tribe:	Gardenieae
Genus:	Atractocarpus Schltr. & K.Krause
Type species
Atractocarpus bracteatus Schltr. & K.Krause
Synonyms
Franciella Guillaumin Neofranciella Guillaumin Sukunia A.C.Sm. Sulitia Merr. Trukia Kaneh.

Atractocarpus is a group of flowering plants that belong to the plant family called Rubiaceae. In Australia, these plants are often known as native gardenias. The name Atractocarpus comes from two Ancient Greek words: atractos, which means "spindle", and karpos, which means "fruit". This name was chosen because the first plant discovered in this group had spindle-shaped fruits.

Discovering Atractocarpus Plants

Botanists Rudolf Schlechter and Kurt Krause first officially named the Atractocarpus group in 1908. The very first plant they identified as part of this group was Atractocarpus bracteatus, which grows only in New Caledonia. After this, more Atractocarpus species were found in New Caledonia.

How Scientists Grouped Plants

For a long time, scientists used to put many plants that were hard to classify into big, general groups like Randia and Gardenia. Think of these like "catch-all" bins for plants that didn't quite fit anywhere else.

However, in 1999, an Australian botanist named Christopher Puttock studied these plants more closely. He found that many Australian plants that were called Randia were not actually closely related to the Randia plants found in other parts of the world, like the Americas.

New Homes for Australian Gardenias

Because of this new research, several Australian plants were moved into the Atractocarpus group. Some of these plants are popular in gardens, such as:

• A. benthamianus
• A. chartaceus (also known as narrow-leaved gardenia)
• A. fitzalanii (also known as brown gardenia or yellow mangosteen)

Puttock also suggested that other small plant groups, like Sukunia, Trukia, Neofranciella, and Sulitia, should also be included in the Atractocarpus group. This made the Atractocarpus group much larger, with about forty different species.

Where Atractocarpus Plants Grow

Today, seven species of Atractocarpus are found in Australia. Other species grow in various places across the Pacific, including:

• Federated States of Micronesia
• the Philippines
• New Guinea
• the Solomon Islands
• Vanuatu
• New Caledonia
• Fiji
• Tonga
• and as far east as Tahiti

All these plants typically live in warm, wet places. You can find them in lowland rainforests, which are forests with lots of vines. They also grow in swamp forests and thick areas of vines.

Types of Atractocarpus Species

Here is a list of some of the different species in the Atractocarpus group:

See also

In Spanish: Atractocarpus para niños