''Didierea madagascariensis'', commonly known as the octopus tree, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Didiereaceae Didiereaceae is a family of flowering plants found in continental Africa and Madagascar. It contains 20 species classified in three subfamilies and six genera. Species of the family are succulent plants, growing in sub-arid to arid habitats. Seve ...

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 spiny thickets of southwestern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> It was first described scientifically by the French botanist

Henri Ernest Baillon Henri Ernest Baillon was a French botanist and physician. He was born in Calais on 30 November 1827 and died in Paris on 19 July 1895. Baillon spent his professional life as a professor of natural history, and he published numerous works on bo ...

in 1880 and is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus ''

Didierea ''Didierea'' is a genus of succulent flowering plants in the family Didiereaceae. It is dedicated to naturalist Alfred Grandidier (1836-1921). Species of ''Didierea'' are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants. The two kn ...

''. It is known in Malagasy as ''sohongy'', ''sony'' and ''soribarika''. ''Sohongy'' and ''sony'' come from the Tanosy dialect word ''songo'' meaning "lock of hair" or a rooster's

crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

possibly referring to its branches that sprawl upwards.

Description

As with all members of the sub-family Didiereoideae, this is a semi-succulent woody, shrub to small tree.Rauh, W. 1983. The morphology and systematic position of the Didiereaceae of Madagascar. Blumea 14(3/4): 839–843. It is densely spiny and can grow up to tall. Spines are arranged in whorls, mostly of four. Leaves are small and narrow-lanceolate and arranged in rosettes.

References

External links

* Didiereaceae Endemic flora of Madagascar Flora of the Madagascar spiny thickets Plants described in 1880 Taxa named by Henri Ernest Baillon {{Caryophyllales-stub