''Maclaudia'' is 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 "unispec ...

genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s belonging to the 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 only contains one known species, ''Maclaudia felixii'' Venter & R.L.Verh. Its native range is western and western central

Tropical Africa Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the tr ...

. It is found in the countries of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

and Guinea. The genus name of ''Maclaudia'' is in honour of Charles Maclaud (1866–1933), French doctor and zoologist; plant and animal collector. The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of ''felixii'' refers to botanist Henri Jacques-Félix, (1907-2008) (Jacq.-Fél.) who is also honoured in the naming of ''

Pitcairnia feliciana ''Pitcairnia feliciana'' is a plant endemic to central Guinea in West Africa and is the only species of bromeliad not native to the Americas. It can be found growing on sandstone outcrops (inselbergs) of the Fouta Djallon highlands in Middle G ...

''. In Paris, Botanists Venter & R.L.Verh. had been studying unknown specimens of plants collected by Maclaud in 1907 from Guinea. In 1937, Henri Jacques-Félix found more specimens of the same plant. Venter & R.L.Verh. realised that they had found a new genus and species and then named it after the 2 plant collectors from the region. Both genus and species were then first described and published by Venter & R.L.Verh. in

Bot. J. Linn. Soc. The ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a scientific journal publishing original papers relating to the taxonomy of all plant groups and fungi, including anatomy, biosystematics, cytology, ecology, ethnobotany, electron microsco ...

Vol.115 on pages 58-59 in 1994. It grows in forests and savannah. It is threatened by farming activities and mining & quarrying actions.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5988885, from2=Q18079846 Apocynaceae Monotypic Apocynaceae genera Plants described in 1845 Flora of Cameroon Flora of Guinea