Trichocladus Explained

Trichocladus is a genus of plant in family Hamamelidaceae, consisting of shrubs or small trees. The distinguishing features of the genus Trichocladus are as follows:

• Branches and leaves are often covered in dense, velvet-like, stellate hairs.
• Leaves are simple, alternate or opposite, and paler beneath, with inconspicuous stipules.
• Flowers are borne in dense, spherical heads, with floral parts in 4s or 5s. Sepals are fused together, forming a tube. Petals are long and narrow. Trichocladus flowers closely resemble those of the genus Hamamelis and are hermaphroditic or sexually separate, with male and female parts being borne on different flowers, either on the same plant of different plants (either monoecious or dioecious).
• Fruits consist of a two-valved capsule which appears to be 4-valved at its apex.^[1]

Species

Species include:^{[2] [3]}

• Trichocladus crinitus (Thunb.) Pers.
• Trichocladus ellipticus Eckl. & Zeyh.
• Trichocladus goetzei Engl.
• Trichocladus grandiflorus Oliv.

Distribution

South Africa^[4] and Zimbabwe.

Etymology

Trichocladus is derived from Greek and means 'hairy-branched' (τριχός trichos, ‘hair’; κλάδος klados, ‘branch’).^[5]

Notes and References

1. Coates-Palgrave, M. 2002. Keith Coates-Palgrave "Trees of Southern Africa", edn 3, imp. 4. Random House Struik (Pty), Ltd, Cape Town. . pp 243, 245
2. The Plant List http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/search?q=trichocladus
3. Missouri Botanic Garden, TROPICOS Nomenclatural Data Base, 09 September 2007 http://mobot.mobot.org/cgi-bin/search_vast?onda=N40017427
4. Mabberley, D. J., "Mabberley's Plant-Book", 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2008. (hardback) pp 836
5. Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 385