''Lenzia'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus of

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 belonging to the family

Montiaceae Montiaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising about 14 genera with about 230 known species, ranging from small herbaceous plants to shrubs. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution. The family Montiaceae was newly adopted in the APG ...

. It only contains one known species, Lenzia chamaepitys Phil. Its native range is southern South America and it is found in Argentina and Chile. The genus name of ''Lenzia'' is in honour of Harald Othmar Lenz (1798–1870), a German teacher and naturalist in

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

and also historian of science, as well as a specialist in fungi and sponges. The Latin specific epithet of ''chamaepitys'' refers the

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 p ...

words ''chamae'' meaning "ground hugging", and also ''pitys'' meaning "pine", from resemblance of the foliage to that of pine trees. Both genus and species were first described and published in Linnaea Vol.33 on page 222 in 1864.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q16390166, from2=Q5973012 Montiaceae Caryophyllales genera Plants described in 1864 Flora of Argentina Flora of Chile