''Berkheyopsis echinus'' is a species 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 ...

in the sunflower family,

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

. It is the sole species in genus ''Berkheyopsis''. It is a perennial herb native to southern Africa, where it grows in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

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 ...

, and the

Cape Provinces The Cape Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "CPP". It includes the Sou ...

and Free State of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is a bushy perennial herb growing up to 40 cm tall, with multiple prickly stems growing from a long taproot. It grows in deserts and dry shrublands. The species was first described as ''Hirpicium echinus'' by

Christian Friedrich Lessing Christian Friedrich Lessing (10 August 1809 – 13 March 1862) was a German botanist who was a native of Groß Wartenberg, Niederschlesien. He was a brother to painter Carl Friedrich Lessing (1808–1880), and a grandnephew of poet Gotthold Ephr ...

in 1832.

Karl August Otto Hoffmann Karl August Otto Hoffmann (25 October 1853 in Beeskow – 11 September 1909) was a German botanist and a high school teacher in Berlin. Author of ''Sertum plantarum madagascariensium'', the genus ''Hoffmanniella'' in the family (biology), famil ...

renamed the species ''Berkheyopsis echinus'' in 1895. Many authorities continued to treat ''Berkheyopsis'' as a synonym of ''Hirpicium''. In 2018 Stångberg, Karis, and Anderberg concluded that ''Hirpicium'' was paraphyletic, and that the species formed a distinct

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

, and revived ''Berkheyopsis'' as a

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.F. Stångberg, P.O. Karis, A. Anderberg, 2018. Intergeneric relationships in the Gorteria clade of Arctotideae-Gorteriinae (Asteraceae), with description of a new genus, ''Roessleria''. ''South African Journal of Botany'', Volume 118, 2018. Pages 216-231. ISSN 0254-6299, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2018.07.018.

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q51844993, from2=Q109713097 Arctotideae Monotypic Asteraceae genera Flora of Botswana Flora of the Cape Provinces Flora of the Free State Flora of Namibia Plants described in 1832