Hoplophyllum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.Per Ola Karis. 2007. "Arctotideae" pages 200-207. In: Klaus Kubitzki (series editor); Joachim W. Kadereit and Charles Jeffrey (volume editors). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume VIII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany. It has two species, Hoplophyllum spinosum and Hoplophyllum ferox, both native to South Africa.David J. Mabberley. 2008. Mabberley's Plant-Book third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK.
Both species are shrubs. The leaves are hard and spine-tipped, much longer than wide, and either cylindrical or somewhat flattened. They are grooved with stripes running lengthwise. The type species is Hoplophyllum spinosum.Hoplophyllum In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In: Regnum Vegetabile (see External links below).
Hoplophyllum is derived from two Greek words, hoplon "a tool or weapon" and phyllon "a leaf", a reference to the spiny leaves.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume II. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC;, USA. London, UK. (vol. II). (see External links below).
The name Hoplophyllum was originated in 1836 by A.P. de CandolleHoplophyllum At: International Plant Names Index. (see External links below). when he assigned Hoplophyllum spinosum to this genus in his classic work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. 1836. Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis 5:73-74. (see External links below). This species had originally been named Pteronia spinosa by Linnaeus filius in 1782 in his book Supplementum Plantarum.Carolus Linnaeus the Younger. 1782. Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium:357. (see External links below).
The closest relative of Hoplophyllum is Eremothamnus, another native of southern Africa.Vicki A. Funk, Raymund Chan, Stirling C. Keeley. 2004. "Insights into the evolution of the tribe Arctoteae (Compositae: subfamily Cichorioideae s.s.) using trnL-F, ndhF, and ITS". Taxon 53(3):637-655. In one classification, published in 2009, these two formed the tribe Eremothamneae.Vicki A. Funk, Alfonso Susanna, Tod F. Stuessy, and Randall J. Bayer. 2009. Systematics, Evolution and Biogeography of the Compositae. IAPT (International Association for Plant Taxonomy). (see External links below). Other authors have placed them in the tribe Arctotideae.
References
External links Hoplophyllum At:Index Nominum Genericorum At: References At: NMNH Department of Botany At: Research and Collections At: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: D-L At: Botany & Plant Science At: Life Science At: CRC Press Hoplophyllum At: IPNI Hoplophyllum In: Prodr. (DC.) vol. 5 Supplementum Plantarum At: botanicus