Spondianthus [SEP] parent taxon
Spondianthus
Spondianthus is a genus of plant, in the family Phyllanthaceae and is the only genus comprised in the subtribe Spondianthinae. It was first described as a genus in 1905. The genus contains only one recognized species, Spondianthus preussii, widespread across much of tropical Africa from Liberia to Mozambique.
- subspecies
2. "Spondianthus preussii" subsp. "glaber" – from Nigeria to Tanzania south to Angola; also Guinea, Ivory Coast
3. "Spondianthus preussii" subsp. "preussii" – from Liberia
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