''Hooveria'' is a genus of

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

bulbous plants in the Agavaceae family native to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and northwest

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. They are among a number of taxa referred to as amole. They are characterized by diurnal flowering and were formerly placed in the genus ''

Chlorogalum The common names soap plant, soaproot and amole refer to the genus ''Chlorogalum''. They are native to western North America, with some species in Oregon but they are mostly found in California. Common names of the genus and several species ...

'', which consists of

vespertine ''Vespertine'' is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 27 August 2001 in the United Kingdom by One Little Independent Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Production on the album ...

flowering species. They are named in honor of Robert F. Hoover,Taylor, D.W. and D.J. Keil. 2018
Hooveria, a new genus liberated from Chlorogalum (Agavaceae subf. Chlorogaloideae).
Phytoneuron 2018-67: 1–6. Published 1 October 2018
ISSN 2153-733X
/ref> a field botanist from California who was responsible for founding the botanical garden and herbarium at California State Polytechnic College.

Description

This genus grows as

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennials A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...

from

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

s. The bulb is ovoid to more or less elongate, with a white to brown outer coat. The basal leaves are shaped linear, and have wavy margins. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

, with linear-shaped

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s. There are one to several flowers and buds emerging from each node. Chlorogalum purpureum purpureum 121016867

The flower is only open for one day, opening in the morning and closing by evening. There are 6

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

parts in 2 petal-like whorls, free and recurved, with the perianth colored white to purple or more or less pink. The perianth is persisting in fruit and twists together distal to the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

. There are 6

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s that are inserted on the bases of the

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s, with the anthers attached at the middle.

Taxonomy

Chromosome

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

is 2''n'' = 60

Taxonomic history

In 1940, Robert F. Hoover, on his monograph of ''

'', noted a division in the genus on the basis of diurnal and

flowering species. He also noted that the same two diurnal species had similar floral morphology. He kept the genus whole on the basis that their vegetative morphology and geographic distribution was quite close and consistent. In 1970, a study reported that the vespertine species have chromosome numbers ranging from 2''n ='' 30 to 2''n'' = 36, while the two diurnal species have a chromosome number of 2''n'' = 60. The

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of metaphase chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is disce ...

s of the diurnal species were noted to have five, instead of six pairs of large chromosomes, which means they were not simply just polyploids formed from the doubling of a 2''n'' = 30 base. In 2013, a study of the

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek language, Greek wikt:φυλή, φυλή/wikt:φῦλον, φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary his ...

in the Chlorogaloideae subfamily also suggested that the genus ''Chlorogalum'' was not

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

. Their analysis showed that the vespertine species form a well-supported clade that excluded the diurnal species. The diurnal species were suggested to be sister to a larger clade comprising the vespertine ''Chlorogalum'', ''

Hastingsia ''Hastingsia'' is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, known generally as rushlilies. These are small perennial herbs endemic to serpentine soils of the Siskiyou-Klamath region in northern Califor ...

'', and ''

Camassia ''Camassia'' is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to North America. Common names include camas, quamash, Indian hyacinth, camash, and wild hyacinth. It grows in the wild in great numbers in moist meadows. They are perennial p ...

''. Another study in 2015 of the Chlorogaloideae subfamily with molecular phylogenetic tools showed that ''Chlorogalum'' is not monophyletic, and that the two diurnal species were placed in a clade that is sister to the remainder of the Chlorogaloideae consisting of the vespertine ''Chlorogalum'', along with ''

'', and ''

''. A 2018 paper in Phytoneuron described ''Hooveria'' as a taxonomic

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 ...

, composed of the two diurnal species, based on the evidence provided by the phylogenetic research that ''Chlorogalum'' comprises two lineages.

List of species

* ''

Hooveria parviflora ''Hooveria parviflora'' is a species of perennial herb in the Agave/Yucca subfamily known by the common name smallflower soap plant. It is a monocot, native to coastal southern California and Baja California, where it is a member of the coastal ...

'' (S.Watson) D.W.Taylor & D.J.Keil * ''

Hooveria purpurea ''Hooveria purpurea'' is a species of flowering plant related to the agaves known by the common name purple amole. This species of soap plant is endemic to California, where it grows in the Santa Lucia Range, in the Central Coast region. There ...

'' (Brandegee) D.W.Taylor & D.J.Keil

Distribution and habitat

The genus is disjunct in distribution. The northern species, ''Hooveria purpurea'' is native to Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, where it is found in foothill woodland areas. The second species, ''Hooveria parviflora'', is found in southeastern Los Angeles and southwest Riverside counties, but is primarily distributed in coastal Orange County and San Diego County, crossing over the border into extreme northwestern Baja California, and it grows in open clearings of chaparral, coastal sage scrub, grassland and open woodlands.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q94304218 Asparagaceae genera Hooveria Flora of Baja California Hooveria Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges