Spinacia [SEP] parent taxon
Spinacia" was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in "Species Plantarum", 2, p. 1027. Type species is "Spinacia oleracea". The genus name may derive from the Latin "spina" or from Persian "ispanakh" (=spine), referring to the spiny fruit. "Spinacia" is closely related to genus "Blitum", both grouping in Tribus Anserineae (Syn. Spinacieae).
The genus "Spinacia" comprises 3 species:
- "Spinacia oleracea" L., spinach
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