Phoenicaulis [SEP] parent taxon
Phoenicaulis
Phoenicaulis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. It contains the single species Phoenicaulis cheiranthoides, which is known by the common names daggerpod and wallflower phoenicaulis.
This is a perennial herb producing one or more stems up to 25 to 30 centimeters tall from a caudex. The basal leaves are narrowly lance-shaped to teardrop-shaped, up to 10 centimeters long, and woolly in texture. Leaves higher on the stem are shorter and usually less hairy. The inflorescence is a raceme
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of