''Medusandra'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Peridiscaceae."Peridiscaceae" At: Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see external links below) It has two

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

, '' Medusandra richardsiana'' and '' Medusandra mpomiana''."Medusandra" At: International Plant Names Index. (see ''External links'' below). ''M. richardsiana'' is the most common and well known. Both species are native to

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

and adjacent countries.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). ''Medusandra'' was named by John Brenan in 1952.John P.M. Brenan. 1952. "Plants of the Cambridge Expedition, 1947-1948: II. A new order of flowering plants from the British Cameroons". ''Kew Bulletin'' 7:227-236. Brenan put ''Medusandra'' in its own family, Medusandraceae, and added '' Soyauxia'' to that family in 1953.John P.M. Brenan. 1953. "''Soyauxia'', a second genus of Medusandraceae". ''Kew Bulletin'' 8:507-511. Most authors, however, maintained Medusandraceae as a monogeneric family and put ''Soyauxia'' elsewhere.John Hutchinson. ''The Families of Flowering Plants, Third Edition (1973)''. Oxford University Press: London.Arthur John Cronquist. 1981. ''An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants''. Columbia University Press: New York, NY, USA. A detailed description of ''Medusandra'' was published by John Hutchinson in 1973. When the APG II system was published by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group in 2003, ''Medusandra'' and ''Soyauxia'' were listed in an appendix as "taxa of uncertain position".The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2003. "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II". ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' 141(4):399-436. (see ''External links'' below). The first

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study to include ''Medusandra'' appeared in 2009.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the most recalcitrant clades in the angiosperm tree of life." ''American Journal of Botany'' 96(8):1551-1570. It showed that ''Medusandra'' is sister to a clade consisting of ''Soyauxia'', ''Peridiscus'', and by implication, ''Whittonia''. These three genera are in Peridiscaceae,Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. and the authors, Kenneth Wurdack and Charles Davis, recommended that ''Medusandra'' be added to Peridiscaceae. When the APG III system was published in October 2009, Peridiscaceae was expanded to include ''Medusandra'' and ''Soyauxia''.Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2009. "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' 161(2):105-121. (see ''External links'' below).

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