Acacia heterophylla
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Acacia heterophylla, the highland tamarind,[1] is a tree (or shrub in its higher places) endemic to Réunion island where it is commonly named tamarin des hauts[2] The tree has a juvenile stage where its leaves have a pinnate arrangement, but in the adult stage the leaves diminish and the phyllode becomes the dominant photosynthetic structure.
It has been introduced into Madagascar[3] where it grows in a subhumid climate at an altitude of about 500–1000 m above sea level.[3]
Genetic sequence analysis has shown its closest relative is Acacia koa of Hawaii; the estimated time of divergence is about 1.4 million years ago.[4][5] A. heterophylla sequences nest within those of the more diverse A. koa, making the latter species paraphyletic.[5] Both species are descended from an ancestral species in Australia, presumably their sister species, Acacia melanoxylon; the means of dispersal to Hawaii and then to Réunion (the latter trip a distance of 18,000 km) is thought to have been seed-carrying by birds such as petrels (the seeds of these species are not adapted for prolonged immersion in seawater).[5] Both species also have very similar ecological niches, which differ from that of A. melanoxylon.[5]
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References
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- ↑ Forestry Abstracts, University of Oxford Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, p.327, 1939
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- ↑ a b Template:EFloras
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