Urera

Taxobox
name = "Urera"


image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Urera caracasana" fruits
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Rosales
familia = Urticaceae
genus = "Urera"
genus_authority = Gaudich.The genus "Urera" comprises shrubs, trees and vines that in Mesoamerica occur most commonly in riparian and disturbed vegetation. Within the Urticaceae Urera is characterized by fleshy fruits (formed by the inflation of the petals), the presence of paintbrush-like stigmas, glabrous pistillodes and hairs with bulbed bases that in some species are stinging.

"Urera" has a pantropical distribution (Neotropics, Africa, Australasia and the Pacific Islands) but is absent from Asia. Currently a single species, "Urera kaalae" Wawra has ‘critical endangered’ status (The World Conservation Union Red List ranking, Hawaii, 2005).The genus Urera was first described by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré in 1826, for which he proposed the sub-tribe Urereae, that was later raised to the rank of tribe by Weddell (1856). This was subsequently renamed Urticeae by Friis (1989.

"Urera" was expanded to include the monospecific genus "Scepocarpus" Wedd (Friis, 1989) and chloroplast DNA sequence data (TRNL-F) suggests that Urera could be sister to "Poikilospermum" within the Urticaceae (Monro, 2006). This contradicts the findings of Sytsma et al. (2002), which place "Poikilosperum" in a subclade with "Pellionia" (sub-tribe Lecantheae).

"Urera" has attracted no monographic attention since Weddell (1856,1869) and to date no subgeneric classification has been published (although Weddell did divide the species into un-named groups according to inflorescence structure and distribution). Systematic work in "Urera" has largely resulted from localized floristic treatments in and adjoining Mesoamerica (Standley & Steyermark, 1952; Burger, 1977; Pool, 2001; Steinmann, 2004). There are currently 113 published species epithets for the genus (The International Plant Names Index, 2005) of which 103 are likely legitimate. Of these epithets, sixteen have since been placed in "Laportea", "Gyrotaenia", "Dendrocnide", "Boehmeria" and "Girardinia" by subsequent authors. Of the remaining 87 names, Friis (1989) estimates that there are ca. 35 ‘good’ species and Pool (2001) 35 to 75.

pecies include:

*"Urera expansa"
*"Urera kaalae"

References

BURGER, W. 1977. Urera, Flora Costaricensis. Fieldiana, Bot. 40: 276--280.
GAUDICHAUD-BEAUPRÉ, C. 1826. Urera, Voy. Uranie, Bot. 496--497.
FRIIS, I. 1989. The Urticaceae: a systematic review. In P. R. Crane and S. Blackmore [eds.] , Evolution, systematics, and fossil history of the Hamamelidae, vol. 2, Systematics Association Special Volume 40B, 285–308. Oxford Science Publications, Oxford, UK
MONRO. A.K. 2006. The revision of species-rich genera: a phylogenetic framework for the strategic revision of Pilea (Urticaceae) based on CPDNA, NRDNA and morphology. Amer. J. Bot. 93: 426-441.
POOL, A. 2001. Urera. In W. D. Stevens, C. Ulloa, A. Pool, and O. M. Montiel [eds.] , Flora de Nicaragua, tomo 3, 2492–2495, Monographs in Botany 85. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
STEINMANN, V.W. 2005. Four new neoptropical species and a new combination of Urera (Urticaceae). Acta Bot. Mex. 71: 19--43.
STANDLEY, P. C., AND J. A. STEYERMARK. 1952. Urera, Flora of Guatemala. Fieldiana, Bot. 3: 424--428.
SYTSMA, K. J., J. MORAWETZ, J. C. PIRES, M. NEPOKROEFF, E. CONTI, M. ZJHRA, J. C. HALL, AND M. W. CHASE. 2002. Urticalean rosids: circumscription, rosid ancestry, and phylogenetics based on rbcL, trnL-F, and ndhF sequences. Amer. J. Bot. 89: 1531–1546.
WEDDELL, H. A. 1856. Urera. In G. Baudry and J. Baudry [eds.] , Monographie de la famille des Urticacées. 143--162. G. and J. Baudry, Paris, France.

External links

* [http://www.ipni.org/ipni/advPlantNameSearch.do?find_family=&find_genus=Urera&find_species=&find_infrafamily=&find_infragenus=&find_infraspecies=&find_authorAbbrev=&find_includePublicationAuthors=on&find_includePublicationAuthors=off&find_includeBasionymAuthors=on&find_includeBasionymAuthors=off&find_publicationTitle=&find_isAPNIRecord=on&find_isAPNIRecord=false&find_isGCIRecord=on&find_isGCIRecord=false&find_isIKRecord=on&find_isIKRecord=false&find_rankToReturn=all&output_format=normal&find_sortByFamily=on&find_sortByFamily=off&query_type=by_query&back_page=plantsearch IPNI]
* [http://www.iucnredlist.org/ 2007 Red List of Threatened Species]