Echidnopsis is a genus of succulent, cactus-like plants in the family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1871.[ Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1871. Botanical Magazine v 97, plate 5930. includes color illustration of E. cereiformis] They are native to eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.[ Asclepiad Exhibition, Echidnopsis Fockea]
- Species formerly included
Echidnopsis quadrangula now
Caralluma quadrangula
- Taxonomy
Phylogenetic studies have shown the genus to be monophyletic, and most closely related to the genus
Rhytidocaulon. Marginally more distantly related is a sister branch comprising the genus
Pseudolithos and the widespread
Caralluma stapeliads of North Africa.
[P. Bruyns, C. Klak, P. Hanacek: Evolution of the stapeliads (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae) - repeated major radiation across Africa in an Old World group. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2014. v. 77, no. 1, p. 251--263. ISSN 1055-7903.]