Specimen image via iDigBio · BY-NC-ND
Geosiris
Sign in to saveGeosiris is a genus in the flowering plant family Iridaceae, first described in 1894. It was thought for many years to contain only one species, Geosiris aphylla, endemic to Madagascar. But then in 2010, a second species was described, Geosiris albiflora, from Mayotte Island in the Indian Ocean northwest of Madagascar. In 2017, a third species was found in Queensland, Australia, Geosiris australiensis.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassLiliopsida
- OrderAsparagales
- FamilyIridaceae
via GBIF · Kew POWO
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 5
- With media
- 5
- Family
- Iridaceae
- Collections
- A, MNHN, K
- Recorded in
- Madagascar, Mayotte
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
Show 5 more facts
- taxon name
- Geosiris
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon common name
- māņīrisi
- topic's main category
- Category:Geosiris
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- References
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Geosiris is a genus in the flowering plant family Iridaceae, first described in 1894. It was thought for many years to contain only one species, Geosiris aphylla, endemic to Madagascar. But then in 2010, a second species was described, Geosiris albiflora, from Mayotte Island in the Indian Ocean northwest of Madagascar. In 2017, a third species was found in Queensland, Australia, Geosiris australiensis.
Geosiris aphylla is sometimes called the "earth-iris." It is a small myco-heterotroph lacking chlorophyll and obtaining its nutrients from fungi in the soil. The genus name is derived from the Greek words geos, meaning "earth", and iris, referring to the Iris family of plants.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Geosiris” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.