''Dendrosenecio kilimanjari'' is a giant groundsel found on Mount Kilimanjaro in

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 ...

, below .

Taxonomy

It was originally known as ''Senecio kilimanjari'', but a recent botanical reclassification split off some species formerly in ''

Senecio ''Senecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus ''Senecio'' is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Description Mor ...

'', putting it and various other species in the new genus ''

Dendrosenecio ''Dendrosenecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family. It is a segregate of ''Senecio'', in which it formed the subgenus ''Dendrosenecio''. Its members, the giant groundsels, are native to the higher altitude zones of ten mo ...

''. Both genera are in the family ''

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

''. The giant groundsels of the genus ''Dendrosenecio'' evolved, about a million years ago, from a ''Senecio'' that established itself on Mount Kilimanjaro, with those that survived adapting into ''Dendrosenecio kilimanjari''. This later colonised other mountains by some means - the standard distance for wind dispersal of seeds is a few metres - and these isolated populations

adapted In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

in ways different from the parent population, creating new species.

Infraspecific name synonymy

The

infraspecific name In botany, an infraspecific name is the scientific name for any taxon below the rank of species, i.e. an infraspecific taxon or infraspecies. (A "taxon", plural "taxa", is a group of organisms to be given a particular name.) The scientific names ...

s for the giant groundsels have become somewhat confusing: *''Dendrosenecio kilimanjari'' (Mildbr.) E.B.Knox subsp. ''cottonii'' (Hutch. & G.Taylor) E.B.Knox **'' Dendrosenecio johnstonii'' (Oliv.) B.Nord. subsp. ''cottonii'' (Hutch. & G.Taylor) B.Nord. **''Senecio cottonii'' Hutch. & G.Taylor **''Senecio johnstonii'' Oliv. subsp. ''cottonii'' (Hutch. & G.Taylor) Mabb. **''Senecio johnstonii'' Oliv. var. ''cottonii'' (Hutch. & G.Taylor) C.Jeffrey *''Dendrosenecio kilimanjari'' (Mildbr.) E.B.Knox subsp. ''kilimanjari'' **'' Senecio johnstonii'' Oliv. var. ''kilimanjari'' (Mildbr.) C.Jeffrey **''Senecio kilimanjari'' Mildbr.

References

External links

* * kilimanjari Endemic flora of Tanzania Mount Kilimanjaro Afromontane flora Plants described in 1922 {{Senecioneae-stub