| Geissoloma | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Crossosomatales |
| Family: | Geissolomataceae A.DC.[1] |
| Genus: | Geissoloma Lindl. ex Kunth |
| Species: | G. marginatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Geissoloma marginatum (L.) Juss. | |
Geissoloma is a genus offlowering plants in themonotypic familyGeissolomataceae, native to theCape Province ofSouth Africa.[2]Geissoloma marginatum is the only species in the family.[3] It is sometimes calledguyalone in English. The plants arexerophytic evergreen shrubs and are known to accumulatealuminum.[4]
Geissoloma marginatum is a low evergreen shrub of ½-1¼ m high, covered in overlapping large, leathery, simple, scale-like, opposite leaves in four rows along the stems. It has very small stipules on the petioles. Flowers are bisexual, subtended by bracts, and have four red to pinkish petaloid sepals, four petals partially united, eight stamens, and four carpels. The fruit is a capsule with four seeds.[5]
Recent phylogenetic analysis resulted in the following tree.[6]
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The Cape Floristic Region in South Africa is comparatively rich in endemic flowering-plant families. Five families of angiosperms (Penaeaceae, Roridulaceae, Geissolomataceae, Grubbiaceae, and Lanariaceae) are endemic to that region ...
Geissolomataceae Endl., Ench. Bot. ... A single genus and species, Geissoloma marginatum (L.) A. Juss., restricted to the southern Langeberg mountains in the Cape of South Africa from the Swellendam to Riversdale divisions, on moist ...
