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Canthium

{{Short description|Genus of plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Canthium coromandelicum near Hyderabad W IMG_7604.jpg

|image_caption = Canthium coromandelicum

|display_parents = 2

|taxon = Canthium

|authority = Lam.{{cite POWO | title = Canthium | id = 34290-1 | access-date = 9 October 2023}}

|type_species = Canthium coromandelicum

|type_species_authority = (Burm.f.) Alston

|synonyms =

|synonyms_ref =

}}

File:Canthium coromandelicum near Hyderabad W IMG 7609.jpg]]

Canthium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs and small trees. The leaves are deciduous and the stems are usually thorny.

Distribution

Canthium species were predominantly found in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand and the Philippines.{{cite journal|author=Bridson DM|year=1992|title=The genus Canthium (Rubiaceae - Vanguerieae) in tropical Africa|journal=Kew Bulletin|volume=47|issue=3|pages=353–401|doi=10.2307/4110569|jstor=4110569|bibcode=1992KewBu..47..353B }} A small number of species was found in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Only a limited number of species were found on the African continent, especially in Southern and East Africa.{{cite web|url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/qsearch.do?plantName=Canthium|title=Canthium in the World Checklist of Rubiaceae|accessdate=8 November 2016}}

Taxonomy

Canthium was named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1785 in Encyclopédie Méthodique.{{cite book|author=Lamarck J-B|year=1785|title=Encyclopédie méthodique par ordre des matières|volume=1|pages=602}} The name is a latinisation of "kantankara", a Malayalam name from Kerala for Canthium coromandelicum. Kantan means "shining" and kara means "a spiny shrub".{{cite book|author=Quattrocchi U|year=2000|title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names|volume=1|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton, New York, Washington DC, London|isbn=978-0-8493-2675-2}} The biological type for the genus consists of specimens originally described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck as Canthium parviflorumCanthium In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In: Regnum Vegetabile but this species is now included in Canthium coromandelicum. Canthium is a member of Vanguerieae, a tribe that is monophyletic and easily recognized morphologically, but in which generic boundaries were, for a long time, very unclear.{{cite journal|vauthors=Lantz H, Bremer B|year=2005|title=Phylogeny of the complex Vanguerieae (Rubiaceae) genera Fadogia, Rytigynia, and Vangueria with close relatives and a new circumscription of Vangueria|journal=Plant Systematics and Evolution|volume=253|issue=1–4|pages=159–183|doi=10.1007/s00606-005-0313-9|bibcode=2005PSyEv.253..159L |s2cid=30867982}} Canthium was especially problematic, and until the 1980s, it was defined broadly and known to be polyphyletic. Psydrax was separated from it in 1985,{{cite journal|author=Bridson DM|year=1985|title=The reinstatement of Psydrax (Rubiaceae, subfam. Cinchonoideae tribe Vanguerieae) and a revision of the African species|journal=Kew Bulletin|volume=40|issue=4|pages=687–725|doi=10.2307/4109853|jstor=4109853|bibcode=1985KewBu..40..687B }} as was Keetia in 1986.{{cite journal|author=Bridson DM|year=1986|title=The reinstatement of the African genus Keetia (Rubiaceae subfam. Cinchonoideae tribe Vanguerieae)|journal=Kew Bulletin|volume=41|issue=4|pages=965–994|doi=10.2307/4102996|jstor=4102996|bibcode=1986KewBu..41..965B }} These were followed by Pyrostria and Multidentia in 1987.{{cite journal|author=Bridson DM|year=1987|title=Studies in African Rubiaceae - Vanguerieae: a new circumscription of Pyrostria and a new subgenus, Canthium subgen. Bullockia|journal=Kew Bulletin|volume=47|issue=3|pages=611–639|doi=10.2307/4110068|jstor=4110068|bibcode=1987KewBu..42..611B }}{{cite journal|author=Bridson DM|year=1987|title=The recognition and recircumscription of the African genus Multidentia (Rubiaceae - Vanguerieae)|journal=Kew Bulletin|volume=47|issue=3|pages=641–654|doi=10.2307/4110069|jstor=4110069|bibcode=1987KewBu..42..641B }} The subgenus Afrocanthium was raised to generic rank in 2004,{{cite journal|vauthors=Lantz H, Bremer B|year=2004|title=Phylogeny inferred from morphology and DNA data: characterizing well-supported groups in Vanguerieae (Rubiaceae)|journal=Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society|volume=146|issue=3|pages=257–283|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8339.2004.00338.x|doi-access=free}} followed by Bullockia in 2009.{{cite journal|vauthors=Razafimandimbison SG, Lantz H, Mouly A, Bremer B|year=2009|title=Evolutionary trends, major lineages, and new generic limits in the dioecious group of the tribe Vanguerieae (Rubiaceae): insights into the evolution of functional dioecy|journal=Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden|volume=96|issue=1|pages=161–181|doi=10.3417/2006191|s2cid=86065468}} A few species were transferred to Canthium from Rytigynia and other genera in 2004. The genus was further reduced by the transfer of species to Peponidium and Pyrostria.{{cite journal|vauthors=Kainulainen K, Razafimandimbison SG |year=2016|title=New taxonomic combinations in West Indian Ocean Vanguerieae (Rubiaceae)|journal=Phytotaxa|volume=282|issue=4|pages=267–272|doi=10.11646/phytotaxa.282.4.3}} In 2016, two Canthium species endemic to the Philippines were transferred to a genus of their own, Kanapia.{{cite journal|vauthors=Arriola AH, Paraguison LD, Alejandro GJ |year=2016|title=Kanapia (Vanguerieae): a new endemic genus of Philippine Rubiaceae|journal=Plant Systematics and Evolution|volume=302|issue=7|pages=911–920|doi=10.1007/s00606-016-1307-5|bibcode=2016PSyEv.302..911A |s2cid=14815565}} The final circumscription of Canthium will remain in doubt until phylogenetic studies achieve greater resolution for the clade containing Canthium coromandelicum and its closest relatives.

Species

{{As of|2023}}, Plants of the World Online recognises the following species:

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References

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{{Reflist}}

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Category:Rubiaceae genera

Category:Flora of the Afrotropical realm

Category:Flora of the Indomalayan realm

Category:Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot