''Ammocharis'' is a small

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

from

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

, in the family

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryl ...

(subfamily

Amaryllidoideae Amaryllidoideae (Amaryllidaceae ''s.s.'', amaryllids) is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the Family (biology), family Amaryllidaceae, Order (biology), order Asparagales. The most recent Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, APG classification, A ...

) which includes seven species distributed in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The plant grows as above-ground bulb, preferring seasonally wet, hot, sandy soils and full sun.

Taxonomy

The botanist William Herbert segregated ''Ammocharis'' from ''

Crinum ''Crinum'' is a genus of about 180 species of perennial plants that have large showy flowers on leafless stems, and develop from bulbs. They are found in seasonally moist areas, including marshes, swamps, depressions and along the sides of strea ...

'' in 1821, with two species, ''A. coranica'' and ''A. falcata'' (both originally ''

Amaryllis ''Amaryllis'' () is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae (tribe Amaryllideae). It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, '' Amaryllis belladonna'', is a native of the Western Cape region of ...

''). He also placed one of

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

' original ''Amaryllis'' species, ''A. longifolia'', in ''Crinum'' as ''C. capense''. This species would also eventually find its way into ''Ammocharis''. In 1847 Roemer placed ''Amaryllis longifolia'' in ''Ammocharis'' as ''Ammocharis longifolfolia'', (Linn.) Roem. without realising it was

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with ''Ammocharis falcata''. However, many subsequent authors included only the two original species. A major review of the genus was undertaken by Milne-Redhead and Schweickerdt in 1939. In their recircumscription they identified five species. With respect to ''A. longifolia=falcata'' they concluded that while very closely related, it was sufficiently distinct as to deserve of generic status, coining the term ''Cybistetes'' , or tumbler, after the way the wind tumbles the

infructescence In botany, infructescence (fruiting head) is defined as the ensemble of fruits derived from the ovaries of an inflorescence. It usually retains the size and structure of the inflorescence. In some cases, infructescences are similar in appearance ...

. From then onwards ''Cybistetes'' was treated as a separate genus. With the development of molecular phylogenetics, Meerow ''et al.'' established Amaryllideae and its

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants). The first use of this word dates back to the late 19th century. An example of ...

Crininae Crininae is one of four subtribes within the tribe Amaryllideae (subfamily Amaryllidoideae, family Amaryllidaceae), with a pantropical distribution (''Crinum'') and also sub-Saharan Africa. Description Leaves frequently show an intercalary me ...

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

taxa. Under their

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: * Circumscribed circle * Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthr ...

, ''Ammocharis'' is placed within subtribe Crininae, which has three genera. But, depending on the status of ''Cybistetes'', two to three genera may be considered. If ''Cybistetes'' is considered separately as ''Cybistetes longifolia'' (L.) Milne-Redh. & Schweick. it is placed in a

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

relationship to ''Ammocharis'' within the subtribe, and with ''Crinum'' placed as sister to ''Cybistetes''+''Ammocharis''. Snijman and Kolberg also place this species within ''Ammocharis'', and provide a key to the genus.(2011)

Subdivision

The

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) was an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected p ...

(WCLSPF) list seven species, including ''Ammocharis longifolia'', rather than consider it as the separate

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus, ''Cybistetes longifolia''. The (WCLSPF) places it in ''Ammocharis'', based on Germishuizen and Meyer (2003). This species has also been called ''Cybistetes herrei'' (F.M.Leight.) D.Müll.-Doblies & U.Müll.-Doblies or ''Ammocharis herrei'', but if accepted as ''Ammocharis'', then ''A. longifolia'' is the preferred name in WCLSPF. The placement of ''Ammocharis longifolia'' (=''Cybistetes longifolia'') was finally settled following the detailed study of in depth relationships in Crininae by Kwembeya ''et al.'' in 2007, and ''Cybistetes longifolia'' restored to ''Ammocharis''. *'' Ammocharis angolensis'' (Baker) Milne-Redh. & Schweick.

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

*'' Ammocharis baumii'' ( Harms) Milne-Redh. & Schweick. Tropical Africa to

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

*'' Ammocharis coranica'' ( Ker Gawl.) Herb. Distributed from

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

to South Africa. Known as "Karoo Lily". *'' Ammocharis deserticola'' Snijman & Kolberg *''

Ammocharis longifolia ''Ammocharis'' is a small genus from sub-Saharan Africa, in the family Amaryllidaceae (subfamily Amaryllidoideae) which includes seven species distributed in Africa. The plant grows as above-ground bulb, preferring seasonally wet, hot, sandy soi ...

'' ( L.) Herb. ("Malgas Lily") Southern

and western

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

. *'' Ammocharis nerinoides'' (

Baker A baker is a tradesperson who baking, bakes and sometimes Sales, sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient histo ...

) Lehmiller Namibia *'' Ammocharis tinneana'' (

Kotschy Kotschy is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Carl Friedrich Kotschy (1789–1856), Austrian theologian and botanist * Theodor Kotschy Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy (15 April 1813 – 11 June 1866) was an Austrian botanist and e ...

& Peyr.) Milne-Redh. & Schweick. Distributed from

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

to Namibia.

Etymology

The genus name derives from two

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

words: ἄμμος (ammos) sand, and χάρις (charis) joy, signifying "delight of the sandy plains" (where it is found).

References

Bibliography

* For references to ''Ammocharis'', see pp. 2ff., 5ff. and 17. * *
online version
* * * * * * * * *

External links

Pacific Bulb Society

Flora of Zimbabwe
{{Taxonbar, from=Q146154 Amaryllidaceae genera Amaryllidoideae Taxa named by William Herbert (botanist)