''Psammophora'' is a genus of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

in the family

Aizoaceae The Aizoaceae, or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1800 species. They are commonly known as ice plants or carpet weeds. They are often called vygies in South Africa and Ne ...

. It contains the following species: * '' Psammophora longifolia'',L. Bolus * '' Psammophora modesta'' (Dinter & A. Berger) Dinter & Schwantes * '' Psammophora nissenii'' (Dinter) Dinter & Schwantes (type species) * '' Psammophora saxicola'' H.E.K.Hartmann Plants in this genus are known for their ability to entrap sand (

psammophory Psammophory is a method by which certain plants armor themselves with sand on their body parts making chances less for them to be eaten by animals. Over 200 species of plants hailing from 88 genera in 34 families have been identified as psammorpho ...

), possibly offering protection against being eaten, or against high wind abrasion or insolation.

References

Aizoaceae Aizoaceae genera Taxa named by Kurt Dinter Taxa named by Martin Heinrich Gustav Schwantes Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Aizoaceae-stub