The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Xiphotheca
Xiphotheca is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It includes 10 species of shrubs endemic to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. They grow in fynbos (Mediterranean-climate shrubland), generally at medium or low elevations, and often species have highly localised ranges. The genus belongs to the subfamily Faboideae. The name of the genus is a compound of Ancient Greek ξίφος (ksíphos), which means "sword", and θήκη (thēkē) which can mean "box" or "sheath"—a reference to the shape of the legume pods. Members of this genus can be distinguished by:
"(1) the presence of bracteoles in most species; (2) the fusion of the bracts with the base of the pedicel; (3) the laterally compressed pods; and (4) the accumulation of anabasine as a major alkaloid."
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Xiphotheca by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
