''Bdallophytum'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has c ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s with five described species. It parasitizes on the roots of plants of the genus ''

Bursera ''Bursera'' is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size up to high. It is the type genus for Burseraceae. The trees are native (often for many species endemic) to the Americas, from the southern Uni ...

'', such as ''

Bursera simaruba ''Bursera simaruba'', commonly known as gumbo-limbo, copperwood, chaca, West Indian birch, naked Indian, and turpentine tree, is a tree species in the family Burseraceae, native to the Neotropics, from South Florida to Mexico and the Caribbean ...

''. The genus is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

.Parasiticplants.siu.edu
Cytinaceae
/ref> It was previously placed in ''

Rafflesiaceae The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including ''Rafflesia arnoldii'', which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are end ...

'', but is now placed in family

Cytinaceae Cytinaceae is a family of parasitic flowering plants. It comprises two genera, ''Cytinus'' and ''Bdallophytum'', totalling ten species. These two genera were formerly placed in the family Rafflesiaceae, order Malpighiales. When they were separat ...

, together with the only other genus ''

Cytinus ''Cytinus'' is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. Species in this genus do not produce chlorophyll, but rely fully on its host plant. ''Cytinus'' usually parasitizes ''Cistus'' and ''Halimium'', two genera of plants in the family Cistaceae. I ...

''. Some ''Bdallophytum'' species were at one time considered to belong to this latter genus. ''Bdallophytum'' is

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

Name

The genus name is probably derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''bdell-'' "

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

" and ''phyton'' "plant". It was later misspelled as ''Bdallophyton'' by Eichler, and this synonym is now also in common use.USDA GRIN
Genus ''Bdallophytum'' Eichler

Species

* '' Bdallophytum americanum'' * '' Bdallophytum andrieuxii'' * '' Bdallophytum bambusarum'' * '' Bdallophytum ceratantherum'' * ''

Bdallophytum oxylepis ''Bdallophytum'' is a genus of parasitic flowering plants with five described species. It parasitizes on the roots of plants of the genus ''Bursera'', such as ''Bursera simaruba''. The genus is endemic to the Neotropics.Parasiticplants.siu.eduCyt ...

Footnotes

References

* (2004): Phylogenetic inference in Rafflesiales: the influence of rate heterogeneity and horizontal gene transfer. ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 4: 40.

External links

Cytinaceae References
Malvales genera Cytinaceae Parasitic plants Dioecious plants Taxa named by August W. Eichler {{Malvales-stub

Name

Species

Footnotes

References

Further reading

External links