Canthium
Genus of plants From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Genus of plants From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canthium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs and small trees. The leaves are deciduous and the stems are usually thorny.
| Canthium | |
|---|---|
| |
| Canthium coromandelicum | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Gentianales |
| Family: | Rubiaceae |
| Subfamily: | Ixoroideae |
| Tribe: | Vanguerieae |
| Genus: | Canthium Lam.[1] |
| Type species | |
| Canthium coromandelicum | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Canthium species were predominantly found in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand and the Philippines.[2] A small number of species was found in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Only a limited number of species were found on the African continent, especially in Southern and East Africa.[3]
Canthium was named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1785 in Encyclopédie Méthodique.[4] The name is a latinisation of "kantankara", a Malayalam name from Kerala for Canthium coromandelicum. Kantan means "shining" and kara means "a spiny shrub".[5] The biological type for the genus consists of specimens originally described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck as Canthium parviflorum[6] but this species is now included in Canthium coromandelicum.[2] Canthium is a member of Vanguerieae, a tribe that is monophyletic and easily recognized morphologically, but in which generic boundaries were, for a long time, very unclear.[7] Canthium was especially problematic, and until the 1980s, it was defined broadly and known to be polyphyletic. Psydrax was separated from it in 1985,[8] as was Keetia in 1986.[9] These were followed by Pyrostria and Multidentia in 1987.[10][11] The subgenus Afrocanthium was raised to generic rank in 2004,[12] followed by Bullockia in 2009.[13] A few species were transferred to Canthium from Rytigynia and other genera in 2004.[12] The genus was further reduced by the transfer of species to Peponidium and Pyrostria.[14] In 2016, two Canthium species endemic to the Philippines were transferred to a genus of their own, Kanapia.[15] The final circumscription of Canthium will remain in doubt until phylogenetic studies achieve greater resolution for the clade containing Canthium coromandelicum and its closest relatives.
As of 2023[update], Plants of the World Online recognises the following species:[1]
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