Alfaroa


Alfaroa is a genus of evergreen trees in the Juglandaceae family of the Fagales, growing in montaine and submontaine tropical rain forests in Central America. The wood is characterized by solid pith, pink heartwood, and vessels with scalariform perforations, as well as simple perforations.

Description

The leaves are evergreen and lack stipules. They are alternate, rarely opposite.
The plants are monoecious, the male flowers being in lateral panicles and the female flowers born terminally either in a single spike or in a hermaphroditic panicle including several paired male catkins. Each flower has a wide bract, two bracteoles, and four sepals. The flowers are sessile. The male flowers have a round or oblong receptacle and six to ten stamens. The pollen grains are approximately 24 micrometers in diameter and are slightly triangular in polar view.
The small fruits are nuts, one-chambered at the apex and eight-chambered at the base. Germination is hypogeal.

Species

Alfaroa includes the following species :
A. guatemalensis and A. roxburghiana were originally described as belonging to the genus Engelhardia. The monotypic genus Alfaropsis I. A. Iljinsk has also been erected for A. roxburghiana.