Trichocladus

Trichocladus is a genus of plant in family Hamamelidaceae, 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.
• 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 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 or dioecious).
• Fruits consist of a two-valved capsule which appears to be 4-valved at its apex.^[1]

Trichocladus
Trichocladus crinitus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Saxifragales
Family:	Hamamelidaceae
Subfamily:	Hamamelidoideae
Tribe:	Dicorypheae
Genus:	Trichocladus Pers.

Species

Species include:^[2][3]

• Trichocladus crinitus (Thunb.) Pers.
• Trichocladus ellipticus Eckl. & Zeyh.
• Trichocladus goetzei Engl.
• Trichocladus grandiflorus Oliv.

Distribution

South Africa^[1][4] and Zimbabwe.^[1]

Etymology

Trichocladus is derived from Greek and means 'hairy-branched' (τριχός trichos, ‘hair’; κλάδος klados, ‘branch’).^[5]

References

1. Coates-Palgrave, M. 2002. Keith Coates-Palgrave "Trees of Southern Africa", edn 3, imp. 4. Random House Struik (Pty), Ltd, Cape Town. ISBN 9781868723898. pp 243, 245
2. The Plant List http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/search?q=trichocladus
3. Missouri Botanic Garden, TROPICOS Nomenclatural Data Base, 09 September 2007
4. Mabberley, D. J., "Mabberley's Plant-Book", 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780521820714 (hardback) pp 836
5. Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521866453 (hardback), ISBN 9780521685535 (paperback). pp 385

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