''Cassinopsis'' is a genus of
Afrotropical
The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...
plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
s, generally placed in the family ''
Icacinaceae
The Icacinaceae, also called the white pear family, are a family (biology), family of flowering plants,"Icacinaceae" At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website (see ''External links'' below).
consisting of trees, shrub ...
''.
They are lanky, evergreen shrubs or small trees
that favour well-watered areas. They may carry spines and the leaves have an opposite arrangement.
[ The genus name suggests its resemblance to the genus '' Cassine''.]
Species
The genus contains some six to seven species,
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3302841
Asterid genera
Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder