''Tabernaemontana alternifolia'' is a species 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 exclud ...
in the family
Apocynaceae
Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the ...
. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Taxonomy
The name ''Tabernaemontana heyneana'' Wall. has often been used for this species, and a proposal was made to
conserve
Conserve may refer to:
* Conserve (condiment), a preserve made from a mixture of fruits or vegetables
* Conserve (NGO), an Indian environmental organization
* Conserve (publisher), a Dutch publisher
* Conserved sequence, a protein or nucleic aci ...
that name so that it would be used instead of ''T. alternifolia''.
Arguments made for conservation were that the
type of the species was not a specimen but an illustration, and that the plant has
opposite leaves
In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature.
Leaf arrangement
The basic arrangements of leaves on a stem are opposite and alternat ...
, not alternate leaves as ''alternifolia'' implies.
[ However, the proposal was rejected, and the correct name of this species is the original name, ''T. alternifolia''.]
References
*
External links
BIOTIK database entry
alternifolia
Endemic flora of India (region)
Near threatened flora of Asia
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN
{{Apocynaceae-stub