Lasiodiscus
| Red-hair bushes | |
|---|---|
| |
| L. mildbraedii with opposite leaf arrangement | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rhamnaceae |
| Genus: | Lasiodiscus J.D. Hook. |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
Lasiodiscus, commonly known as red-hair bushes, is a small plant genus in the family Rhamnaceae. It is endemic to Africa and its adjacent islands.
Description
[edit]The small trees have opposite, often asymmetric leaves. As with Colubrina, the flower ovaries are surrounded by a nectariferous disc that fills the receptacle.
Habitat
[edit]They regularly occur in the understorey of tropical forests, or alternatively in swamp forest. One species, L. rozeirae, is limited to mountain forest understorey.
Relationships
[edit]Lasiodiscus is morphologically similar to Colubrina, which occurs in the Neotropics, Asia and Afrotropics, but preliminary molecular analysis failed to group them as nearest relatives.[1]
Species
[edit]There are 9 accepted species:
- Lasiodiscus chevalieri Hutch. –
- Lasiodiscus fasciculiflorus Engl. – Sierra Leone to Nigeria, w Cameroon and D.R.C.
- Lasiodiscus holtzii Engl. – East Africa
- Lasiodiscus mannii Hook. – central Africa
- Lasiodiscus marmoratus C.H. Wright – Cameroon
- Lasiodiscus mildbraedii Engl. – African tropics and locally along east coast to South Africa
- Lasiodiscus pervillei Baill. – Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion and Comores
- L. p. pervillei – widespread in Madagascar
- L. p. ferrugineus (Verdc.) Figueiredo – local and vulnerable in East Africa
- Lasiodiscus rozeirae A.W. Exell – São Tomé in Gulf of Guinea, vulnerable
- Lasiodiscus usambarensis Engl. – Usambara Mountains and locally to Zimbabwe
References
[edit]- ^ A phylogenetic analysis of Rhamnaceae using RBCL and TRNL-F plastid DNA sequences, J.E. Richardson et al., American Journal of Botany, 87(9), 2000.
External links
[edit]Note: The Lasiodiscidae belongs to the Foraminifera and Reichel (1945) described the genus Lasiodiscus.
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