Hoodia
are into the family (or subfamily) Asclepiadaceae. The family Asclepiadaceae
is now, according to AGP, included in the Apocynaceae (Endress & Bruyns,
2000).
The
AGP, Angiosperm Phylogeny Group is an international group of systematic
botanists.
Now
there are five subfamilies into Apocynaceae:
- Rauvolfioideae
(originally into Apocynaceae)
-
Apocynoideae (originally into Apocynaceae)
-
Periplocoideae (originally intoAsclepiadaceae)
-
Secamonoideae (originally into Asclepiadaceae)
-
Asclepiadoideae (originally into Asclepiadaceae)
Into
the Asclepiadeaceae we have the tribe Stapeliae (all succulents and leafless)
with the following list of genera included:
Angolluma,
Caralluma, Desmidorchis, Duvalia, Echidnopsis, Edithcolea, Hoodia, Huernia,
Huerniopsis, Larryleachia, Notechidnopsis, Orbea, Orbeopsis, Piaranthus,
Pachycymbium, Pectinaria, Pseudolithos, Pseudopectinaria, Quaqua, Rhytidocaulon,
Stapelia, Stapelianthus, Stapeliopsis, Tavaresia, Tridentea, Tromotriche,
and Whitesloanea.
So
Hoodia is a genus into the tribu Stapeliae, into the subfamily (but most
ot time refered as family) Asclepiadaceae, into the family Apocynaceae.
The
genus is named for a Mr. Hood who was a succulent plant grower in England
in 1830’and named the hoodia plant.
Hoodia Plants Scientific Classification:
| Kingdom:
Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida |
Subclass:
Asteridae
Order: Gentianales Family: Apocynaceae |
Sub
Family: Asclepiadaceae
Tribe: Stapeliae Genus: Hoodia |
Trichocaulon:
You can find some Hoodias under this name. According to The British Cactus
and Succulent Society Handbook of Shows (1991): Hoodia, Pseudolithos and
Trichocaulon were all members of the Trichocaulon subgroup, and Trichocaulon
a genus it is own, into Stapeliae.
Now
Trichocaulon genus is not longer accepted and was split in two.
Some
Trichocaulons had stems with spiny tubercles, others had stems with rounded
tubercles. The spiny ones are now into Hoodia, and the rounded ones got
two separate generic names from two taxonomists. So the plants (old Trichocaulons
with rounded tubercles) are now either called Lavrania (after John Lavranos),
or Larryleachia (after Larry Leach). The final decision isn't in yet: Lavrania
was winning, but recently Larryleachia is recovering strong.