Picconia


Picconia is a genus of two species flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, found in the laurel forests habitat, of Macaronesia.

Description

They are evergreen shrubs to trees with large, opposite, entire, shiny, ovoid leaves and numerous flowers.
The fruit is a drupe. The flowers are small white and fragrant, followed by one-seeded, olive-like green fruit, ripening to bluish-black. Picconia are native of open spots in the laurel forest of the Canary Islands and Madeira where they are found only in the humid to hyper-humid evergreen forests of the
cloud belt. Tree species with laurel-shaped leaves are predominant, forming a dense canopy up to 40 m high that can be hardly trespassed by light, which results in scant vegetation in the understory. Most of these tree species in Africa are ancient paleoendemic species of the genera Laurus, Ocotea, Persea, and Picconia, which in ancient times were widely distributed on the African and European continents.

Species