Canthium armatum

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Speciesbox

|image = False Turkeyberry (Canthium armatum) (16462475912).jpg

|image_caption =

|status =

|status_system =

|display_parents = 3

|genus = Canthium

|species = armatum

|parent_authority =

|authority = (K.Schum.) Lantz (2004)

|synonyms =

• Canthium ovatum {{small|(Burtt Davy) Burtt Davy (1935)}}
• Plectronia ovata {{small|Burtt Davy (1921)}}
• Plectroniella armata {{small|(K.Schum.) Robyns (1928)}}
• Plectroniella capillaris {{small|Bremek. (1933)}}
• Vangueria armata {{small|K.Schum. (1899)}}

|synonyms_ref = [https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77062265-1 Canthium armatum (K.Schum.) Lantz]. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 9 October 2023.

}}

Canthium armatum is a species of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is a shrub or tree native to southern Mozambique, Eswatini, and KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Provinces of northeastern South Africa. The species is characterized by the presence of large spines.

It was first described as Vangueria armata in 1899 by Karl Moritz Schumann. In 1928 Walter Robyns placed it in a new monotypic genus, Plectroniella.{{cite journal|author=Robyns W|year=1928|title=Tentamen monographiae Vanguerieae generumque affinium|journal=Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de l'état Bruxelles|volume=11|issue=1|pages=1–359|doi=10.2307/3666476|jstor=3666476}} In 2004, a molecular phylogenetic study showed that Plectroniella armata was related to Canthium ciliatum and species was transferred to the genus Canthium.{{cite journal|author=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}}