''Zenobia'', called honeycup, is a North American genus of shrubs in the family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

Description

''Zenobia'' is a hairless

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

, sometimes with a waxy coating on the foliage. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are elliptical or egg-shaped. The plant has numerous white flowers in flat-topped or elongated arrays, each flower has 5 separate sepals and 5 united petals, forming a bell-shaped corolla. Each flower can produce up to 200 egg-shaped seeds in a dry capsule.

Fossil record

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

fruits of †''Zenobia fasterholtensis'' have been described from

middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

of the Fasterholt area near

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. ;SpeciesThe Plant List, search for ''Zenobia''
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Zenobia cassinefolia ''Zenobia cassinefolia'' is a North American species of shrubs, in the genus ''Zenobia'', in the family Ericaceae. It is native to Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. ''Zenobia cassinefolia'' is a hairless shrub with thick, leathery leaves up t ...

'' (Vent.) Pollard *''

Zenobia pulverulenta ''Zenobia pulverulenta'', the honeycup, is a North American species of shrubs, in the genus ''Zenobia'', in the family Ericaceae. It is native to coastal plain of the Southeastern United States, in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. D ...

'' (W. Bartram ex Willd.) Pollard *'' Zenobia speciosa'' (Michx.) D. Don

References

Vaccinioideae Flora of the Southeastern United States Ericaceae genera {{Ericaceae-stub