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Cake day: June 4th, 2025

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  • oh yea i noticed the nomenclature/naming is very wierd for some plants. like in thismia, they have 5 different lineages, so they name it "section thismia, or another name based on thier morphology and later phylogenetic data. eventhough they have an established genus name,SECT geomitra, labiothismia,etc, which isnt a genus but it was originally named because thats the first specimen they found of a specific species. they call alot species phyllocladus, because the “leaf” is actually the stem, but its also the genus name. im guessing plants are complicated/ or look similar enough to each other you cant tell the difference until you do genetic testing, which they dont do on alot of plant lineages, like the mycoheterotrophs i mentioned, they are tricky to resolve.

    and the genus is sometimes generic named like phyllocladus, xerophyta(an actual genus). oh yea paleontology is probably easier to resolve, if you can find extant or extinct animals that are similar, and just name it in the same genus.

    orchids are also a fun family of plants , especially if you notice they are all mycoheterotrophs to begin with, its just the ones we see switch to full photosynthesis, but some are mixotrophs, and some loss thier chlorophyll entirely.



  • alot of plants phylogeny is like this, they looked similar enough they are the same species, after doing enough testing, mostly mitochondria, choloroplast they actually are combined into one genus or move into another one. my favorite is mycoheterotrophs(plants that are entirely dependant fungi rather than photosynthesis), thismiaciae was originally though to have evolved in burmannia family,and then thier own family and then back again.

    finally in the 2020s they realized even thismiacae is polyphyletic. so now south americans thismia’s are likely belonged to another genus entirely(they havnt done significant phylogenetic studies in the SA ones)(seperate from the ones in south east asia, australia, and 1 extinct one in usa which makes it very unusual for it to appear in america), thismiacae is now a full family, and afrothismia was originally included in thismia, until they genetic testing, its entirely “new family” interdependently evolved but related to the ancestors of thismia. trying to trace lineage of mycoheterotrophic plants is difficult because they lose thier cholorplast genes quite easily.

    its only because they all looked very similar to each other, they were all combined into one family.