Fagonia

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Fagonia
Fagonia Arabica.jpg
Fagonia arabica
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Zygophyllales
Family: Zygophyllaceae
Subfamily: Zygophylloideae
Genus: Fagonia
L. [1] [2]
Species

See text

Fagonia is a genus of wild, flowering plants in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae, having about 35 species. Species occurring in the US are commonly referred to as fagonbushes. The distribution of the genus includes parts of Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Mid-East, India, and parts of the Americas. Fagonia species have been used ethnobotanically by traditional practitioners under Ayurvedic and other healing regimes for many maladies. Species occur in deserts, dry washes, ditches and on rocky outcrops, including at altitude.

Contents

Fagonia laevis is a perennial herb of the United States desert southwest. It has opposite leaves, trifoliate with spinescent stipules, a pink corolla and smooth fruits. Under cultivation, F. indica has been found to have a long taproot and to its growth slowing where temperatures dipped below 65 F.

Commercial Fagonia products available on the web should be viewed with caution by reason of there being little to no authentication as to species contained therein, based on DNA analysis. It may be that all Fagonia species contain medicinal compounds but that had to be established as of 2015. Research carried out in 2014 in Pakistan found that all six Pakistani Fagonia species, both the verified and unverified ones, [3] were represented in commercial Fagonia products in the Islamabad marketplace. Plant systematists[ who? ] caution that species other than Fagonia, as well as other, unrelated material, can be present in commercial preparations.

Numerous scientific papers cite Fagonia cretica as the species studied. However, due to the re-ordering of Fagonia species by Beier in 2005, researchers have found that they have actually been studying another Fagonia species, instead, most commonly, Fagonia indica. [3]

Species

As of January 2018, Plants of the World Online accepts the following species: [1]

Related Research Articles

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Zygophyllaceae is a family of flowering plants that contains the bean-caper and caltrop. The family includes around 285 species in 22 genera.

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Fumaria is a genus of about 60 species of annual flowering plants in the family Papaveraceae. The genus is native to Europe, Africa and Asia, most diverse in the Mediterranean region, and introduced to North, South America and Australia. Fumaria species are sometimes used in herbal medicine. Fumaria indica contains the alkaloids fuyuziphine and alpha-hydrastine. Fumaria indica may have anti-inflammatory and analgesic potential.

<i>Inula</i> Genus of flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae

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<i>Petrorhagia</i>

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Echium is a genus of approximately 70 species and several subspecies of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae. The type species is Echium vulgare.

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<i>Parietaria</i>

Parietaria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae, native to temperate and tropical regions across the world.

<i>Fagonia laevis</i> Species of flowering plant

Fagonia laevis, the California fagonbush, is a species of plant in the Zygophyllaceae, the caltrop family. It is a perennial subshrub of the southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico desert regions in California, southern Nevada, Arizona, southwest Utah, Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur. It thrives upon hot, dry, slopes and hillsides that also receive seasonal-(winters of the Southwest) or monsoon moisture.

<i>Rostraria</i> Genus of grasses

Rostraria is a genus of plants in the grass family, native primarily to Eurasia and North Africa with one species native to South America. Hairgrass is a common name.

<i>Tetraena</i>

Tetraena is a genus of flowering plants in the family Zygophyllaceae.

<i>Roepera</i>

Roepera is a genus of flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. It is native to southern Africa and Australia.

<i>Ricotia</i> Genus of Brassicaceae plants

Ricotia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, found in the Aegean islands, Crete, the Levant, the Sinai peninsula, Turkey, and the Transcaucasus. They appear to have arisen in Anatolia, to which five species are endemic.

References

  1. 1 2 "Fagonia Tourn. ex L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
  2. "Genus: Fagonia L." Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2004-06-18. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  3. 1 2 Beier, Bjorn-Axel Beier (2005). "A revision of the desert shrub Fagonia (Zygophyllaceae)". Systematics and Biodiversity. 3 (3): 221–263. doi:10.1017/S1477200005001684.

Mediterranean Species: