Myosurus [SEP] parent taxon
Myosurus
The genus Myosurus, or mousetail, belongs to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It comprises about 15 species of annual scapose herbs. These herbs are nearly cosmopolitan (lacking in eastern Asia and tropical regions), with a center of diversity in western North America. The flowers are easily recognised by bearing 6 stamens with numerous ovaries on a stalk (accounting for the name "mousetail").
Selected species:
- "Myosurus apetalus" - bristly mousetail
- "Myosurus cupulatus" - Arizona mousetail
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