Lepidobotrys is a flowering plant genus in the family '' Lepidobotryaceae''. It contains only one species, ''Lepidobotrys staudtii''.Klaus Kubitzky. "Lepidobotryaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol.VI. Springer-Verlag: Berlin,Heidelberg, Germany (2004). ''L. staudtii'' is a small

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n tree, ranging from

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

eastward to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). The tannin

3,4,5-tri-O-galloylquinic acid 3,4,5-Tri-''O''-galloylquinic acid is a hydrolysable tannin found in '' Lepidobotrys staudtii'', in '' Guiera senegalensis'' or in the resurrection plant (''Myrothamnus flabellifolius ''Myrothamnus flabellifolius'' is a plant species in the ge ...

is found in ''L. staudtii''.3,4,5-tri-O-galloylquinic acid on home.ncifcrf.gov
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Taxonomic history

''Lepidobotrys staudtii'' was named and described by

Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

in 1902 and placed by him in the family

Linaceae Linaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family is cosmopolitan, and includes about 250 species in 14 genera, classified into two subfamilies: the Linoideae and Hugonioideae (often recognized as a distinct family, the Hugoniaceae). Leaves of ...

.Adolf Engler (May 1902). section: Linaceae africanae In: "Beitrage zur Flora von Afrika" In: ''Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie'' 32(1):108 (see External links below) It was regarded as somewhat of an anomaly and during the 20th century, was assigned to various families by different authors. Hans G. HallierHans G. Hallier. ''Lepidobotrys'' Engl.: "Die Oxalidaceen und die Geraniaceen" ''Beihefte zum Botanischen Centralblatt'' 39(2):163. and Reinhard KnuthReinhard G.P. Knuth. "Oxalidaceae" In: Adolf Engler and Karl Prantl. ''Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' ed.2 volume 19a:40-41. put it in

Oxalidaceae The Oxalidaceae, or wood sorrel family, are a small family of five genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees, with the great majority of the 570 species in the genus ''Oxalis'' (wood sorrels). Members of this family typically have divid ...

. In 1950, Jean Leonard became the first to put it in a family by itself, which he thought to be close to Linaceae.Jean J.G. Leonard (Jun1950). "''Lepidobotrys'' Engl., type d'une famille nouvelle de Spermatophytes: les Lepidobotryaceae" ''Bulletin du Jardin botanique de l'Etat a Bruxelles'' 20(1):38. Arthur Cronquist, agreeing with Hallier and Knuth, put it in Oxalidaceae.Arthur Cronquist. ''An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants''. Columbia University Press: New York 1981. Adding to the confusion was the lack of any strong basis for placing these and related families into orders.

Etymology

''Lepidobotrys'' is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, meaning 'scale-cluster'. The name is in reference to the cone-like arrangement of its bracts, which extend under the flowers.Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 234

References

External links

Celastrales genera Monotypic rosid genera Celastrales {{Rosid-stub