Mentzelia [SEP] parent taxon
Mentzelia
Mentzelia is a genus of about 60-70 species of flowering plants in the family Loasaceae, native to the Americas. The genus comprises annual, biennial, and perennial herbaceous plants and a few shrubs.
They are commonly called blazing stars or stickleafs; other names include "evening stars" and "moonflowers".
Selected species.
- "Mentzelia affinis" – Yellowcomet
- "Mentzelia albescens"
- "Mentzelia albicaulis" – Whitestem blazingstar
- "Mentzelia aspera"
- "Mentzelia
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