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(Last Modified On 6/26/2013)
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(Last Modified On 6/26/2013)
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Genus
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Batis P. Browne
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PlaceOfPublication
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Civ. Nat. Hist. Jam. 356. 1756.
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Note
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TYPE: B. maritima L.
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Description
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Glabrous, monoecious or dioecious shrubs, often nodding or prostrate; the bark flaking off; branching alternate, sometimes rooting and branching at the nodes. Leaves opposite, succulent, linear, apically pointed or mucronate, basally clasping but drying with an umbonate appendage; stipules inconspicuous, caducous. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, in monoecious species the flowers borne separately on short leafy axes (brachyblasts) with male and female flowers sessile on the same shoot, in dioecious species the flowers borne in short, dense axillary catkins or syncarps. Male flowers subtended by a bract or leaf and sur- rounded by a pair of tepallike bracts (spathella), the stamens 4, alternating with 4 staminodes or appendages, the anthers ovoid, exserted, the filaments glabrous, the gynoecium rudimentary or wanting; female flowers or catkins subtended by a pair of scalelike bracts or by leaves, the pistils fused or separate, when fused bearing a scalelike bract near the apex, the pistil 4-locular, each locule with a single erect, basal ovule, the style persistent, short or wanting, the stigmas 2-capi- tate, fimbriate, persistent. Fruits drupes or syncarps, the outer tissues fleshy or leathery, the endocarp woody; seeds 1-4 in each pistil, oblong, nearly straight.
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Habit
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shrubs
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Distribution
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This genus includes two contrasting species, one B. maritima, common along seacoasts of the New World with outlying populations in the Hawaiian Islands and Galapagos Islands, and the other, B. argillicola van Royen, restricted to the south coast of New Guinea.
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Note
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The American species is a prostrate, dioecious shrub which grows on sea flats and under mangroves, usually in intimate contact with the sea, whereas the New Guinea species is an erect shrub with monoecious flow- ers growing on silty clay pans at seaside. In the American species, the flowers are united in short, conelike catkins whereas in the New Guinea species they are separate or free in small clusters on short shoots, each flower or cluster subtended by a leaf. The occurrence of this genus along seacoasts suggests dispersal by ocean currents, but this raises the question of why the genus is not more widespread in the Old World. Johnson (1935) commented that seedlings are almost never found in nature.
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