Northern Cape
Nodes
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Conophytum
Mesembryanthemaceae
Untitled
Tylecodon
Pages
Taxonomy term
Lapeirousia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Philippe Isidore Picot, former Lord of Lapeyrouse (Lapeirouse), Baron de Bazus (1744–1818), French botanist, geologist, and mineralogist. He was professor of natural history at Toulouse University, first Dean of the Faculty of Science, Mayor of Toulouse (1800–1807) under Napoleon, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences of Toulouse (from 1811), and creator of the Natural History Museum. He explored the entire Pyrenees twice, the second time with Déodat de Dolomieu (1750–1801). He was the author of papers on public education, geology, the mines and agriculture, and of the work Histoire abrégée des plantes des Pyrénées et itinéraire des botanistes dans ces montagnes (Brief history of the plants from the Pyrenees and botanists’ routes in the mountains) (1818).
Larryleachia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Leslie Charles (Larry) Leach (1909–1996), British-born amateur taxonomic botanist, electrical engineer and plant collector in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He emigrated to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1938. From 1956, he devoted himself to a study of succulent plants, particularly Stapeliae, Euphorbieae and the genus Aloe. He was honorary botanist at the National Herbarium of Zimbabwe (1972–1981), then employed at the National Botanical Garden, Worcester, South Africa (1982–1989) and from 1990 at the department of botany, University of Pietersburg (now University of Limpopo). He authored a number of works on succulents and was a Fellow of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America (1983). He received, inter alia, the Harry Bolus Medal (1968).
Massonia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Francis Masson (1741–1805), British gardener and plant collector for Kew Gardens. He was sent by Sir Joseph Banks to collect plants in South Africa and sailed with Captain James Cook to the Cape, where he stayed from 1772–1775. Two of his three expeditions were made jointly with Carl Peter Thunberg, who named this genus for him. From 1786–1795, he visited Madeira, the Canary Islands and Azores, West Indies, North America and North Africa. He collected more than 500 specimens including, now household names, the bird-of-paradise flower Strelitzia reginae and the arum lily Zantedeschia aethiopica among others such as Gladioli, Lobelia, Geranium, Pelargonium, Protea and Mesembryanthemum. He authored Stapeliae Novae on new South African succulents he discovered (1796).
Microloma
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. mikros = very small; loma = edge or fringe; referring to the hairy corolla tube. The hairs are minute.
Montinia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
After Laurence Montin, "an obscure Swedish botanist" (Harvey in F.C.).
Ornithogalum
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. ornithos = bird; gala = milk, presumably referring to the colostrum-like, high fat secretions produced by the Colombidae (‘pigeon’s milk’) and stored in the crop for feeding the young. Maybe this somewhat resembles the gooey sap that exudes from the cut stems. Some authors suggest that the name merely refers to the milky whiteness of some flowers, while ‘bird’s milk’ to the ancient Greeks was a colloquial expression for something wonderful.
Osteospermum
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. osteon = bone; sperma = seed. The achenes are bone-hard.
Othonna
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Name derived from the Greek othone, a linen cloth or napkin, in allusion to the downy covering of some of the earlier known species. Doria Less. is not regarded as separable.
Oxalis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
From the Greek oxys = sharp, sour or acid and (h)als = salt. The plant is frequently consumed for its sour taste caused by the oxalic acid, particularly the flowering stalks of O. pes-caprae. In large quantities the oxalic acid inhibits digestion and in stock leads to the condition 'dikpens' or bloated belly.
Pelargonium
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. pelargos = a stork; referring to the beak of the fruit which resembles a stork’s bill (cf Geranium, Erodium).
Pharnaceum
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Pharnaces II (63–47 BCE), son of Mithradates VI Emperator, King of Pontus, in North East Anatalia, on the Black Sea. He was defeated by Julius Caesar (100–140 BCE) at Sinopa, the actual occasion on which Caeser gave the extraordinarily concise message ‘veni, vidi, vici’ (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’) which he dispatched to Rome.
Polygala
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. poly = much; gala = milk; so-called from the belief that cattle grazing in fields with this plant produced more milk. (San Marcos growers in the United States claim that Polygala virgata ‘Portola’ has this property but the authors could find no scientific evidence).
Rhus
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. rhous, from rhodos = red (the word can be traced back for centuries); referring to the fruits or autumn leaves of some species.