''Soyauxia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

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 in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Peridiscaceae Peridiscaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales.Peter F. Stevens. 2001 onwards. "Peridiscaceae". At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below). Four genera comprise ...

.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. They are small

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s or erect shrubs from wet

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s of

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mau ...

. Eight

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

s have been published in ''Soyauxia''."Soyauxia" At: International Plant Names Index. (see ''External links'' below). Additional species have been discovered, but their names and descriptions will not be published until 2009 or 2010. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

for the genus is

Soyauxia gabonensis ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelber ...

.''Soyauxia'' In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In: Regnum Vegetabile (see ''External links'' below). ''Soyauxia'' was long considered an anomaly and it has been variously

classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper *The Classified, a 1980s American roc ...

by different authors, usually in Passifloraceae or in the

defunct Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence Obsolescence is t ...

plant family

Flacourtiaceae The Flacourtiaceae is a defunct family of flowering plants whose former members have been scattered to various families, mostly to the Achariaceae and Salicaceae. It was so vaguely defined that hardly anything seemed out of place there and it bec ...

. The first

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study to include ''Soyauxia'' placed it in Peridiscaceae.Soltis, D. E.; Clayton, J. W.; Davis, C. C.; Gitzendanner, M. A.; Cheek, M.; Savolainen, V.; Amorim, A. M.;

Soltis, P. S. Pamela Soltis (born November 13, 1957) is an American botanist. She is a distinguished professor at the University of Florida, curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, principal investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics an ...

(2007):Monophyly and relationships of the enigmatic family Peridiscaceae. ''Taxon'' 56(1):65-73. Its position within that family was determined in 2009.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the most recalcitrant clades in the angiosperm tree of life." ''American Journal of Botany'' 96(8):1551-1570.

Species

''Soyauxia'' contains the following species (but this list may be incomplete or contain synonyms.): * ''

Soyauxia bipindensis ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelber ...

'', Gilg ex

Baker f. Edmund Gilbert Baker (1864–1949) was a British plant collector and botanist. He was the son of John Gilbert Baker. Works * ''Synopsis of Malveae'', 1895 * ''The plants of Milanji, Nyassa-land''. Con James Britten. 1894 * ''Catalogue of the Pl ...

* ''

Soyauxia floribunda ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelber ...

'', Hutchinson * ''

'', Oliv. * ''

Soyauxia glabrescens ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelber ...

'', Engler * ''

Soyauxia grandifolia ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelber ...

'', Gilg & Stapf * ''

Soyauxia ledermanii ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume IX. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidel ...

'',

Sleumer Hermann Otto Sleumer (February 21, 1906 in Saarbrücken – October 1, 1993 in Oegstgeest) was a Dutch botanist of German birth. The plant genera '' Sleumerodendron'' Virot (Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predomi ...

* ''

Soyauxia talbotii ''Soyauxia talbotii'' is a species of plant in the Peridiscaceae family. It is endemic to Nigeria. References Peridiscaceae Flora of Nigeria Endangered plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Saxifragales-stub ...

'',

* ''

Soyauxia velutina ''Soyauxia velutina'' is a species of flowering plant from the genus ''Soyauxia ''Soyauxia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae.Clemens Bayer. 2007. "Peridiscaceae" pages 297-300. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor). ''The F ...

'', Hutchinson & Dalziel

History

The genus ''Soyauxia'' was named by Daniel Oliver in 1880, in a book whose final edition was entitled ''Hooker's Icones Plantarum''.Joseph Dalton Hooker. 1880. ''Hooker's Icones Plantarum'' volume XIV (volume IV of the third series):page 73 and plate 1393. (see ''External links'' at Icones Plantarum). It was named for the German botanist and plant collector

Hermann Soyaux Hermann Soyaux (4 January 1852, Breslau – 1928, Brazil) was a German botanist and explorer. Biography Soyaux was initially a horticulturalist and then studied botany in Berlin. The ''Deutsche Afrika Gesellschaft'' (German Africa Society) fund ...

. Upon naming it, Oliver wrote Oliver placed the new genus in Passifloraceae and described one species, ''Soyauxia gabonensis''. In 1953, John Brenan put ''Soyauxia'' in Medusandraceae,John P.M. Brenan. 1953. "''Soyauxia'', a second genus of Medusandraceae". ''Kew Bulletin'' 8:507-511. a family that he had established the year before.John P.M. Brenan. 1952. "Plants of the Cambridge Expedition, 1947-1948: II. A new order of flowering plants from the British Cameroons". ''Kew Bulletin'' 7:227-236. Brenan's classification was not generally followed by others, and John Hutchinson wrote a detailed account of why he thought that ''Soyauxia'' and ''

Medusandra ''Medusandra'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Peridiscaceae."Peridiscaceae" At: Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see external links below) It has two species, '' ...

'' were not closely related.John Hutchinson. ''The Families of Flowering Plants, Third Edition (1973)''. Oxford University Press: London. In 2007, in the first comparison of DNA sequences to include ''Soyauxia'', it was shown that ''Soyauxia'' is sister to a clade of two

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

n trees, ''

Peridiscus ''Peridiscus lucidus'' is a species of flowering plant, the only species in the genus ''Peridiscus'', which is one of four genera within the family Peridiscaceae. It grows in Venezuela and northern Brazil, in evergreen, sometimes riverine forest ...

'' and ''

Whittonia ''Whittonia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Peridiscaceae. It only contains one known species, 'Whittonia guianensis'Sandwith It is native to Guyana. The genus name of ''Whittonia'' is in honour of Brian Alan ...

''. The authors recommended that ''Soyauxia'' be moved to Peridiscaceae. The position of ''Soyauxia'' within Peridiscaceae was clarified in 2009, with the inclusion of ''Medusandra'' in a

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

study. In that study, it was shown that Brenan's concept of Medusandraceae is

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

over Peridiscaceae sensu stricto, but that Brenan had been prescient in his perception of a relationship between ''Medusandra'' and ''Soyauxia''. The authors recommended that ''Medusandra'' as well as ''Soyauxia'' be transferred to Peridiscaceae.