INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
This website attempts to present all currently accepted generic, specific, subspecific and variety names of trees, excluding fossils, extinct taxa, hybrids and cultivars.
The definition of a tree essentially follows Little Jr. (1979: 3). A tree is defined as a woody plant, with a single, erect and persistent stem of at least 10 cm in diameter, measured at 1.3 m above the mean ground level, and with a total height of at least 5 m. A crown of leaves may be more or less well defined. Willows (Salix), birches (Betula), palms (Palmae) and bamboos (Bambusa, Guadua), with several stems branching from the same root system, as well as cacti (Cactaceae) are considered as trees, provided that they meet the diameter and height criteria.
Only the indigenous trees of a continent (those wild species that were natural elements of the spontaneous forest vegetation before the arrival of Europeans or other colonizers) are included.
Each entry includes the family to which it is assigned, the synonyms of Latin name, the English names, the French names, the Spanish names and other names. For English and French names, the standard name is listed first. This name is then followed by other available names with the country where they are used in parentheses. Where additional names are listed, the parentheses indicate the language and the country where they are used.
Each infrageneric
entry (species, subspecies, variety) includes, in addition, the distribution,
height, type of foliage, ecological characteristics and main uses of the tree
when available. Please note that the content of the section dr (drug) is
for informational purposes only. The author is not liable in any way for the
results of medicinal uses mentioned in this web site. The reader assumes any and
all risk of damage, injury, death, or any other inconvenient related to the
content found herein.
Abbreviations for authors' names follow Brummitt & Powell (1992).
In this part of the website, only taxa indigenous to the North American continent are included. North America is presented in the global geographical (not political) sense, the 9 zones from Alaska and Greenland to Panama, including the Caribbean, but excluding Hawaii.
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