A geoxyle is a plant in which an enlarged, woody structure occurs beneath the surface of the ground. Such plants have developed independently in various plant lineages, mostly evolving in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or undershrub is either a small shrub (e.g. prostrate shrubs) or a perennial that is largely herbaceous but slightly woody at the base (e.g. garden pink and florist's chrysanthemum). The term is often interch ...

s is characterised by massive

lignotuber A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a respons ...

s or underground woody

axes Axes, plural of ''axe'' and of ''axis'', may refer to * ''Axes'' (album), a 2005 rock album by the British band Electrelane * a possibly still empty plot (graphics) See also * Axis (disambiguation) An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics ...

from which emerge aerial shoots which may be ephemeral. These growth forms are found in

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

hs in southern Africa. It is thought they developed in tandem with the spread of savannahs which resulted in an increase in tall grasses which are easily flammable during the long dry season associated with the savannah climate. Some well-known examples of geoxyles are the sand apple (''

Parinari capensis ''Parinari capensis'', the sand apple, is a species of flowering plant in the family ''Chrysobalanaceae''. It is found in Botswana, DRC, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. It is tall. The leaves are elliptic with a white u ...

''), the plough-breaker ('' Erythrina zeyheri''), the red wings ('' Combretum platypetalum'') and the wild grape ('' Lannea edulis''). Others are ''

Ancylobothrys petersiana ''Ancylobothrys petersiana'' grows as a climbing shrub up to tall. Its fragrant flowers feature a creamy or white corolla. Fruit is spherical, up to in diameter. Vernacular names include "climbing wild apricot". Habitat is woodland and rocky h ...

'', ''

Diospyros galpinii ''Diospyros'' is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. The majority are native to the tropics, with only a few species extending into temperate regions. Individual species valued for their hard, heavy, dark timb ...

'', ''

Elephantorrhiza elephantina ''Entada elephantina'', commonly known as the eland's wattle or elephant's root, is a subshrub in the mimosoid clade of legumes. They occur widely and in several bioregions of southern Africa in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Afr ...

'', ''

Erythrina resupinata ''Erythrina resupinata'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,Eugenia albanensis ''Eugenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It has a worldwide, although highly uneven, distribution in tropical and subtropical regions. The bulk of the approximately 1,100 species occur in the New World tropics, ...

'', ''

Eugenia capensis ''Eugenia capensis'', the dune myrtle, is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, gua ...

'', ''

Maytenus nemorosa ''Gymnosporia nemorosa'' is a spiny, somewhat sprawling evergreen shrub or small tree with drooping branches growing to some 5 m tall and found along forest edges in Mpumalanga, Eswatini, KwaZulu-Natal south to the Garden Route in the Southern Ca ...

'', ''

Pachystigma venosum ''Pachystigma'' was a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae but is no longer recognized. In 2005, it was sunk into synonymy with ''Vangueria'', based on a phylogenetic study of DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession o ...

'' and ''

Salacia kraussii In ancient Roman mythology, Salacia ( , ) was the female divinity of the sea, worshipped as the goddess of salt water who presided over the depths of the ocean. Neptune was her consort. That Salacia was the consort of Neptune is implied by Varr ...

''. Their occurrence is influenced by environmental disturbances and climate seasonality, while soil fertility impacts functional types and their diversity.

References

{{reflist Forest ecology Plant life-forms