''Verdesmum'' is a

monotypic genus 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 "unispe ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s belonging to the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. It only contains one known species, ''Verdesmum hentyi''. It is also within the tribe

Desmodieae The tribe (biology), tribe Desmodieae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family (biology), family Fabaceae. It is composed of two subtribes, Desmodiinae and Lespedezinae. Recent phylogenetics has this tribe nested within tribe Phaseoleae. G ...

, with another species ''Verdesmum menglaense'' but this was transferred to the ''

Hylodesmum ''Hylodesmum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, sometimes called ticktrefoils or tick-trefoils. It is sometimes treated as part of ''Desmodium ''Desmodium'' is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae, sometimes ca ...

'' genus in 2019. It is native to

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. This genus was considered to be fairly similar to ''Hylodesmum'' , but differed in having funnel-shaped terminal stigma, bracteolate (possessing bracteoles (or bractlets)) calyces (collective term for the sepals of one flower), linear shaped seed pods, very narrow obovate-elliptic shaped articles (fruit with constrictions between the seeds) and stipes longer than fruiting pedicels (stalks of a flower). The genus name of ''Verdesmum'' is in honour of

Bernard Verdcourt Bernard Verdcourt (20 January 1925 – 25 October 2011) was a biologist and taxonomist, most widely known as a botanist and latterly an honorary research fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London. Prior to coming to Kew in 1964, he was ...

(1925–2011), an English biologist and taxonomist. The Latin

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

of ''hentyi'' refers to plant collector and botanist E.E. Henty, (1915–2002). Both the genus and the species were first described and published in J. Jap. Bot. Vol.87 on page 301-303 in 2012.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q64762683, from2=Q64762776 Desmodieae Monotypic Fabaceae genera Plants described in 1845 Flora of Borneo Flora of Papua New Guinea