''Spirostachys'' is a

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 ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

first described as a genus in 1850. It is native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Zuloaga, F. O., O. Morrone, M. J. Belgrano, C. Marticorena & E. Marchesi. (eds.) 2008. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares del Cono Sur. Monographs in systematic botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 107(1–3): i–xcvi, 1–3348. The genus name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''speiros'' = spiral, ''stachys'' = spike, in allusion to the spiral arrangement of the florets on the flower spike. ;Species # ''

Spirostachys africana ''Spirostachys africana'' is a medium-sized (about tall) deciduous tree with a straight, clear trunk, occurring in the warmer parts of Southern Africa. Its wood is known as tamboti, tambotie, tambootie or tambuti. It prefers growing in single-s ...

'' Sond. - E + SE + S Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland,

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, Cape Province) # '' Spirostachys venenifera'' (Pax) Pax - Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania ;formerly included moved to other genera ''(

Excoecaria ''Excoecaria'' is a plant genus of the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae, formally described by Linnaeus in 1759. The genus is native to the Old World Tropics (Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and assorted oceanic islands). Etymol ...

Spegazziniophytum ''Spegazziniophytum'' is a genus of plants in the family Euphorbiaceae first described in 2001. It contains only one known species, ''Spegazziniophytum patagonicum'', which is endemic to Argentina (Provinces of Mendoza, Neuquén, Chubut Chubut ...

)'' # ''Spirostachys madagascariensis'', syn of '' Excoecaria madagascariensis'' # ''Spirostachys patagonica'', syn of '' Spegazziniophytum patagonicum'' ;names in

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae ( ) is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, maki ...

The same genus name, ''Spirostachys'', was used twice to name genera in the

. Thus were created two illegitimate homonyms, unacceptable according to the rules of nomenclature. The species assigned to these genera have been placed in the genera '' Allenrolfea and Heterostachys,'' as follows:Tropicos, search for name ''Falconeria''
/ref> # ''Spirostachys occidentalis'' (S. Watson) S. Watson 1874, now ''

Allenrolfea occidentalis ''Allenrolfea occidentalis'', the iodine bush, is a low-lying shrub of the Southwestern United States, California, Idaho, and northern Mexico.Shultz, L.M.: 'eFloras 2008''Allenrolfea occidentalis'' in Flora of North America Missouri Botanical Ga ...

'' (S.Watson) Kuntze # ''Spirostachys olivascens'' Speg. 1902, now '' Heterostachys olivascens'' (Speg.) Molfino # ''Spirostachys ritteriana'' (Moq.) Ung.-Sternb. 1866, now '' Heterostachys ritteriana'' (Moq.) Ung.-Sternb. # ''Spirostachys vaginata'' Griseb. 1874, now '' Allenrolfea vaginata'' (Griseb.) Kuntze # ''Spirostachys vaginata'' Benth. & Hook.f. - unresolved

References

Hippomaneae Euphorbiaceae genera {{Euphorbiaceae-stub