| Agathosma | |
|---|---|
| |
| Agathosma betulina | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: | Rutaceae |
| Subfamily: | Zanthoxyloideae |
| Genus: | Agathosma Willd. (nom. cons.)[1][2][3] |
| Species | |
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See text. | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Agathosma is a genus of about 140 species of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae, native to the southern part of Africa. Common names include buchu, boegoe, bucco, bookoo and diosma. Buchu formally denotes two herbal species, prized for their fragrance and medicinal use despite their toxicity. In colloquial use however, the term (see Boegoe) is applied to a wider set of fragrant shrubs or substitutes.
They are small shrubs and subshrubs, mostly with erect woody stems reaching 30–100 cm (1' to 3') tall, but low-growing and prostrate in some species. The leaves are usually opposite, ericoid, often crowded, simple, entire, from 0.5-3.5 cm (¼" to 1½") long. The flowers are produced in terminal clusters, 0.7–2 cm (¼" to ¾") diameter, with five white, pink, red or purple, petals.
Many of the species are highly aromatic, and the genus name means "good fragrance". Some species of the genus are used as herbal remedies.
- ^ a b GRIN (March 20, 2008). "Agathosma information from NPGS/GRIN". Taxonomy for Plants. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland: USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
Comment: conserved (nom. cons.) against the homotypic synonym (Vienna ICBN Art. 14.4 & App. III) Bucco J.C.Wendl., nom. rej. & the heterotypic synonym Hartogia L., nom. rej.
- ^ The genus Agathosma as well as the type A. villosa was described and published in Enumeratio plantarum Horti Regii Botanici Berolinensis: continens descriptiones omnium vegetabilium in horto dicto cultorum. 259. 1809. "Name - !Agathosma Willd". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT). Retrieved January 30, 2013.
Annotation: nom. cons.; Type Specimens: T: Agathosma villosa (Willd.) Willd.
- ^ N O T E : Click on the hyperlink for "page 259" to read the text by Karl Ludwig Willdenow, Friedrich Karl von Schlechtendal (1809). "Classis V. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA; Genus 291. AGATHOSMA". Enumeratio plantarum Horti Regii Botanici Berolinensis: continens descriptiones omnium vegetabilium in horto dicto cultorum (in Latin). pp. 259–260. Retrieved January 30, 2013.