''Edithcolea'' is a

monotypic genus 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 "unispe ...

with a single species ''Edithcolea grandis'' (Persian carpet flower). Once classified in the family

Asclepiadaceae The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, they were treated as a separate family under the name Asclepiadaceae, e.g. by APG II, and known as the milkweed family. They form a group of perennial herbs, tw ...

, it is now in the subfamily

Asclepiadoideae The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, they were treated as a separate family under the name Asclepiadaceae, e.g. by APG II, and known as the milkweed family. They form a group of perennial herbs, tw ...

of the dogbane family

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the ...

. It is native to

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

and to the Arabian Peninsula. The genus is named after Edith Cole (1859–1940). She collected the type material for this plant with Lort Philips in 1895, during a botanical expedition (1894–1895) led by Ethelbert Edward Lort Phillips (1857-1944) from

Berbera Berbera (; so, Barbara, ar, بربرة) is the capital of the Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of the British Somaliland protectorate before Hargeisa. It ...

to the Golis mountains in Somaliland.(ref Flor._Africa)

Description

''Edithcolea grandis'' is a succulent plant with leafless, richly branched, perennial and decumbent stems with a diameter of 2 to 4 cm and up to 30 cm in length (ref prota, ref Field 80). The

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part o ...

stems are 4 or 5 angled and armed with regularly placed hard and acute spinelike teeth or

tubercules In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, ...

. The base color of the plant varies from green to red with brownish spots. The

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...

flowers A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

are 8 to 13 cm in diameter and are formed near the apex of the branches. The flower consists of an outer corolla with 5 corolla lobes (petals), which are fused halfway to the center and a relatively small inner

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

. The outside or back side of the flower is yellow to green. The inside consist of a pale yellow base color with a purple-reddish pattern of spots at the outside that gradually become smaller near the inner corona, which has itself has concentric reddish lines. Long purple hairs are present at the border of the brim of the outer corolla lobes. The flower is at times described as the Persian carpet flower. The carrion-like smell of the flowers attracts flies and other insects for

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds ...

. The fruit (follicles) contain a large number of seeds. The oval shaped seeds bear a tuft of hairs (coma) so they can be dispersed with the wind. The smaller variant baylissiana (Lavros & Hardy) has more branched stems that are smaller in diameter (1 to 1.5 cm), shorter (10 cm) and are often spirally twisted.

Distribution

''Edithcolea grandis'' is distributed throughout the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the ...

region (

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country 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 south by Tanzania. The south ...

), the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

(

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

, Somaliland) and

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...

(including the

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen� ...

archipelago). The plant is found in dry and

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

regions. Sometimes in full sun, but mostly partly shaded by rocks and shrubby vegetation.

Usage and growth

The stem of ''Edithcolea grandis'' is eaten as a

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems ...

in Ethiopia and Somalia. (Ref prota, ref Getahuna 1974) ''Edithcolea grandis'' is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental in desert gardens worldwide. It has a gained a reputation as a particularly difficult plant to keep because of its very specific growing needs with much light and relatively high (above 15 °C) winter temperatures. It’s very susceptible to rot in combination with low temperatures.

Literature

*D.V. Field. ''Edithcolea grandis''. Asklepios 20: 18-21, 1980. *J.J. Lavranos & D.S. Hardy. ''Edithcolea grandis'' var. ''baylissiana'' Lavranos & Hardy. Asklepios 20: 21-23, 1980. *Focke Albers und Ulrich Meve (Hrsg.): ''Illustrated handbook of succulent plants, Volume 3''. Springer-Verlag 2002, 335 pages, . *Sigrid Liede-Schumann und Ulrich Meve: ''The Genera of Asclepiadoideae, Secamonoideae and Periplocoideae (Apocynaceae)''
''Edithcolea'' - Online.
(in Englisch) *PROTA 2: Vegetables / Légumes 2004, page 292. Backhuys Publishers. *J.J. Lavranos, D.S. Hardy, 1963. *Flora of tropical Africa, Volume 4, Section 1, Daniel Oliver, L. Reeve, 1937, reprint 1958 *Diagnoses Africanæ, VII. Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Gardens, Kew), Vol. 1895, No. 105 (1895), pp. 211–230, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4114977?seq=10 * Amare Getahuna. The role of wild plants in the native diet in Ethiopia. Agro-Ecosystems. Volume 1, 1974, Pages 45–56.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5338703, from2=Q1285246 Asclepiadoideae Flora of Africa Flora of Yemen Garden plants Monotypic Apocynaceae genera Taxa named by N. E. Brown