''Lasiodiscus'', commonly known as red-hair bushes, is a small plant genus in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

. It is endemic to Africa and its adjacent islands.

Description

The small trees have opposite, often asymmetric leaves. As with ''

Colubrina ''Colubrina'' is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Rhamnaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia, northern Australia, and the Indian Ocean islands. Common names include ...

'', the flower ovaries are surrounded by a nectariferous disc that fills the receptacle.

Habitat

They regularly occur in the understorey of tropical forests, or alternatively in swamp forest. One species, ''L. rozeirae'', is limited to mountain forest understorey.

Relationships

''Lasiodiscus'' is morphologically similar to ''

'', which occurs in the Neotropics, Asia and Afrotropics, but preliminary molecular analysis failed to group them as nearest relatives.A phylogenetic analysis of Rhamnaceae using RBCL and TRNL-F plastid DNA sequences, J.E. Richardson et al., American Journal of Botany, 87(9), 2000.

Species

There are 9 accepted species: * ''

Lasiodiscus chevalieri ''Lasiodiscus'', commonly known as red-hair bushes, is a small plant genus in the family Rhamnaceae. It is endemic to Africa and its adjacent islands. Description The small trees have opposite, often asymmetric leaves. As with ''Colubrina'', th ...

'' Hutch. – * '' Lasiodiscus fasciculiflorus'' Engl. – Sierra Leone to Nigeria, w Cameroon and D.R.C. * ''

Lasiodiscus holtzii ''Lasiodiscus'', commonly known as red-hair bushes, is a small plant genus in the family Rhamnaceae. It is endemic to Africa and its adjacent islands. Description The small trees have opposite, often asymmetric leaves. As with ''Colubrina'', th ...

'' Engl. – East Africa * ''

Lasiodiscus mannii ''Lasiodiscus'', commonly known as red-hair bushes, is a small plant genus in the family Rhamnaceae. It is endemic to Africa and its adjacent islands. Description The small trees have opposite, often asymmetric leaves. As with ''Colubrina'', th ...

'' Hook. – central Africa * '' Lasiodiscus marmoratus'' C.H. Wright – Cameroon * '' Lasiodiscus mildbraedii'' Engl. – African tropics and locally along east coast to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

* '' Lasiodiscus pervillei'' Baill. – Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion and Comores : ''L. p. pervillei'' – widespread in Madagascar : ''L. p. ferrugineus'' (Verdc.) Figueiredo – local and vulnerable in East Africa * '' Lasiodiscus rozeirae'' A.W. Exell – São Tomé in Gulf of Guinea, vulnerable * '' Lasiodiscus usambarensis'' Engl. – Usambara Mountains and locally to Zimbabwe

References

External links

Flora of Zimbabwe

Madagascar Catalogue

Description of L. pervillei
Note: The ''Lasiodiscidae'' belongs to the

Foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...

and Reichel (1945) described the genus ''Lasiodiscus''. Rhamnaceae genera {{Rhamnaceae-stub