''Alluaudia'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the family

Didiereaceae Didiereaceae is a family of flowering plants found in continental Africa and Madagascar. It contains 20 species classified in three subfamilies and six genera. Species of the family are succulent plants, growing in sub-arid to arid habitats. Seve ...

. There are six species, all

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. Most occur in the southwestern subarid forest-thicket vegetation of the island. Species of ''Alluaudia'' are

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

, with male and female flowers on separate plants. Spines are arranged around the leaves as a defense against herbivores. The spines are several meters above the ground, and probably evolved in response to herbivory by now-extinct

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

s, such as ''

Hadropithecus ''Hadropithecus'' is a medium-sized, extinct genus of lemur, or strepsirrhine primate, from Madagascar that includes a single species, ''Hadropithecus stenognathus''. Due to its rarity and lack of sufficient skeletal remains, it is one of the le ...

''. Several lemur species living today feed heavily on ''Alluaudia'', such as the

ring-tailed lemur The ring-tailed lemur (''Lemur catta'') is a medium- to larger-sized strepsirrhine (wet-nosed) primate and the most internationally recognized lemur species, owing to its long, black-and-white, ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of fiv ...

(''Lemur catta'') and the

white-footed sportive lemur The white-footed sportive lemur, white-footed weasel lemur, or dry-bush weasel lemur (''Lepilemur leucopus'') is a species of lemur in the family Lepilemuridae, the sportive lemurs. It is similar in appearance to other lemurs in the family, with ...

(''Lepilemur leucopus'').Crowley, B. E. and L. R. Godfrey. (2013)
Why all those spines?: Anachronistic defences in the Didiereoideae against now extinct lemurs.
''South African Journal of Science'' 109(1-2), 1-7.

Species

References

External links

GRIN Species Records of ''Alluaudia''.
Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). * http://worldofsucculents.com/how-to-grow-and-care-for-alluaudia/ Didiereaceae Caryophyllales genera Endemic flora of Madagascar Dioecious plants {{Caryophyllales-stub