''Trichocladus'' 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 exclud ...
in family
Hamamelidaceae
Hamamelidaceae, commonly referred to as the witch-hazel family, is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales. The clade consists of shrubs and small trees positioned within the woody clade of the core Saxifragales. An earlier system ...
, consisting of shrubs or small trees. The distinguishing features of the genus ''Trichocladus'' are as follows:
*Branches and leaves are often covered in dense, velvet-like, stellate hairs.
*Leaves are simple, alternate or opposite, and paler beneath, with inconspicuous
stipules
In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...
.
*Flowers are borne in dense, spherical heads, with floral parts in 4s or 5s. Sepals are fused together, forming a tube. Petals are long and narrow. ''Trichocladus'' flowers closely resemble those of the genus ''
Hamamelis
Witch-hazels or witch hazels (''Hamamelis'') are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America ('' H. ovalis'', '' H. virginiana'', and '' H. vernalis''), and one each in Japan ('' H.&nb ...
'' and are hermaphroditic or sexually separate, with male and female parts being borne on different flowers, either on the same plant of different plants (either
monoecious
Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy.
Monoecy is conne ...
or
dioecious
Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...
).
*Fruits consist of a two-valved capsule which appears to be 4-valved at its apex.
[Coates-Palgrave, M. 2002. Keith Coates-Palgrave "Trees of Southern Africa", edn 3, imp. 4. Random House Struik (Pty), Ltd, Cape Town. . pp 243, 245]
Species
Species include:
[Missouri Botanic Garden, TROPICOS Nomenclatural Data Base, 09 September 200]
/ref>
* '' Trichocladus crinitus'' (Thunb.
Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Swedish naturalist and an "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus. After studying under Linnaeus at Uppsala Un ...
) Pers.
Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (1 February 1761 – 16 November 1836) was a German mycologist who made additions to Linnaeus' mushroom taxonomy.
Early life
Persoon was born in South Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, the third child of an imm ...
* ''Trichocladus ellipticus
''Trichocladus ellipticus'' is a species in the genus ''Trichocladus'', in the family Hamamelidaceae. It is also called white witch-hazel.Coates-Palgrave, M. 2002. Keith Coates-Palgrave "Trees of Southern Africa", edn 3, imp. 4. Random House Str ...
'' Eckl. & Zeyh.
* '' Trichocladus goetzei'' Engl.
* '' Trichocladus grandiflorus'' Oliv.
Daniel Oliver, FRS (6 February 1830, Newcastle upon Tyne – 21 December 1916) was an English botanist.
He was Librarian of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1860–1890 and Keeper there from 1864–1890, and Professor of Botany at ...
Distribution
South Africa[Mabberley, D. J., "Mabberley's Plant-Book", 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2008. (hardback) pp 836] and Zimbabwe.
Etymology
''Trichocladus'' is derived from Greek and means 'hairy-branched' (τριχός ''trichos'', ‘hair’; κλάδος ''klados'', ‘branch’).[Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 385]
References
Hamamelidaceae
Saxifragales genera
Afromontane flora
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Saxifragales-stub