Corchorus neocaledonicus Schlechter
Corchorus neocaledonicus was previously placed, as Oceanopapaver neo-caledonicum Guillaumin, in a monotypic genus which had been assigned variously to Tiliaceae, Capparidaceae, Papaveraceae, Cistaceae, or a monogeneric Oceanopapaveraceae. A detailed description of the family Oceanopapaveraceae, and by implication the genus and species, can be found at L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz: The Families of Flowering Plants: Oceanopapaveraceae.
Corchorus neocaledonicus is an New Caledonian endemic.
A paper, "Chloroplast DNA sequences confirm the placement of Oceanopapaver within the Grewioideae (Tiliaceae or Malvaceae s.l.)" (abstract) by Whitlock, Karol & Alverson resolved the position of Oceanopapaver. It used the chloroplast ndhF and rbcL genes to demonstrate that Oceanopapaver, belongs within Malvaceae sensu APG, within or close to Corchorus (jute and allies). I have examined the ndhF sequences, which have been deposited at GenBank, and find that they indicate that Oceanopapaver is nested deeply within Corchorus, and should be reduced to synonymy with Corchorus. This has been done in the latest revision of Malvaceae, by Clemens Bayer, in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, Vol. 5.
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© 2002, 2003 Stewart Robert Hinsley