''Kirkia'' is a genus of

plant Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

in family

Kirkiaceae Kirkiaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales. It comprises one (or two) genera, '' Kirkia'' (and '' Pleiokirkia'' now included in ''Kirkia''), totalling six species. These two genera were previously placed in family Simaroub ...

. It was previously placed in family

Simaroubaceae The Simaroubaceae are a small, mostly tropical, family in the order Sapindales. In recent decades, it has been subject to much taxonomic debate, with several small families being split off. A molecular phylogeny of the family was published in 200 ...

, but was transferred into Kirkiaceae, together with '' Pleiokirkia'', because these genera produce neither

quassinoid Quassinoids are degraded triterpene lactones (similar to limonoids) of the Simaroubaceae plant family grouped into C-18, C-19, C-20, C-22 and C-25 types. The prototypical member of the group, quassin, was first described in the 19th century fr ...

s nor

limonoid Limonoids are phytochemicals of the triterpenoid class which are abundant in sweet or sour-scented citrus fruit and other plants of the families Cucurbitaceae, Rutaceae, and Meliaceae. Certain limonoids are antifeedants such as azadirachtin fro ...

s. The genus name of ''Kirkia'' is in honour of Sir John Kirk, (1832–1922), who was a physician, naturalist, companion to explorer

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of ...

, and British administrator in

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

Species

It contains the following species (6), but this list may be incomplete): * '' Kirkia acuminata'' Oliv., 1868,
Catalogue of Life: 2017 Annual Checklist Genus Kirkia South Africa (Transvaal), Namibia, Botswana, SW-Angola, SE-D.R. Congo (Zaire), Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique * '' Kirkia burgeri'' B. Stannard Ethiopia; Somalia * '' Kirkia dewinteri'' Merxm. & Heine, 1960 Namibia * '' Kirkia leandrii'' (Capuron) Stannard, 2007 Madagascar; syn.: ''Pleiokirkia leandrii'' Capuron, 1961 * '' Kirkia tenuifolia'' Engl., 1902 SE-Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya * '' Kirkia wilmsii'' Engl., South Africa (Transvaal)

Journal

'Kirkia' is also the name of 'The Zimbabwe Journal of Botany', published by the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden, Zimbabwe. Since 1960 to the present day and written in English.

References

Sapindales genera Sapindales Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Daniel Oliver {{sapindales-stub