Genus of the Week
Week of November 30 - December 6
This page has been created for people who want to learn more about plants, especially in the
context of their taxonomy (Latin names, etc.). This is by no means an exhaustive list of
all available Web resources for a particular genus.
If you like this page, you should also visit the Land of the Glandular Trichomes
, a microscopic look at plants in the Lamiaceae family.
This week's genus:
Pyrenacantha
Subclass: Dicotyledoneae
Superorder: Rosidae
Order: Celastrales
Family: Icacinaceae
Tribe: Phytocreneae
Root: From "pyren", meaning grain, and "cantha", meaning thorn.
Pyrenacantha is a genus of shrubs that grow by climbing up trees in the tropical
rainforests it inhabits. The tribe to which it belongs (Phytocreneae) is characterized by
the warty appearence of the inner wall of the endocarp of its fruits.
Here are a few links to images and descriptions of different Pyrenacantha species:
- See an image of an
unidentified species of Pyrenacantha from the Frank Horwood Slide Collection. This
particular image is from Somalia.
- The web site for the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument has a huge list of species
found at this spot in Eastern Oregon. See if you can find where the
fossil Pyrenacantha is located.
References:
- Heywood, V.H., ed. Flowering Plants of the World. New York, Oxford University Press: 1993.
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