Volkensinia
Genus of flowering plants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Volkensinia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Amaranthaceae. It only contains one known species; Volkensinia prostrata.[2] It is in the subfamily Amaranthoideae.
| Volkensinia | |
|---|---|
| |
| The flower of Volkensinia or Dasysphaera prostrata, an arid-adapted shrub that grows on saline or alkaline soils in the Lake Turkana region of northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Amaranthaceae |
| Subfamily: | Amaranthoideae |
| Genus: | Volkensinia Schinz, 1912 |
| Species: | V. prostrata |
| Binomial name | |
| Volkensinia prostrata | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Its native range is north eastern and eastern Tropical Africa, it is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania.[1][2]
The genus name of Volkensinia is in honour of Georg Volkens (1855–1917), a German botanist born in Berlin.[3] The Latin specific epithet of prostrata means on the ground as derived from prostrate.[4] Both the genus and the sole species were first described and published in Vierteljahrsschr. Naturf. Ges. Zürich Vol.57 on page 535 in 1912.[1][2]
The species has been variably assigned either to the genus Dasysphaera or to Volkensinia.[5][6]