''Baphiastrum'' 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

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

family (

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

). It includes a single species, ''Baphiastrum brachycarpum'', a

liana A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the Canopy (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...

native to west-central Africa. It grows in Guineo-Congolian forest in Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. It belongs to the subfamily

Faboideae The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family. This subfamily is widely ...

. ''Baphiastrum'' was traditionally assigned to the tribe

Sophoreae The tribe (biology), tribe Sophoreae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family (biology), family Fabaceae. Traditionally this tribe has been used as a wastebasket taxon to accommodate genera of Faboideae which exhibit actinomorphic, rather t ...

; however, recent

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 ...

analyses reassigned ''Baphiastrum'' to the

Baphieae The tribe Baphieae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae. The Baphieae tribe arose 55.3 ± 0.4 million years ago (in the early Eocene). Genera The Baphieae tribe has been circumscribed to include the following genera, whi ...

tribe.

References

Baphieae Monotypic Fabaceae genera Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Plants described in 1913 Taxa named by Hermann Harms {{Faboideae-stub