Aspalathus [SEP] parent taxon
Aspalathus
Aspalathus is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The yellow flowers and spiny habit of some species have suggested a resemblance to "Ulex europaeus", the thorny "English gorse" Accordingly, "Cape Gorse" has been proposed as a common name although the resemblance is largely superficial; for instance, gorse is thorny, whereas "Aspalathus" species are variously spiny or unarmed. The genus belongs to the sub family Faboideae. There are over 270 species, mainly endemic to southwestern fynbos regions
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