Fockea is a genus of succulent scrubs native to Africa south of the equator. They are members of the Asclepiadoideae (milkweeds), a subfamily of the dogbane family Apocynaceae. Of the six accepted species, only the two most widely distributed extend north of southern Africa, with F. multiflora reaching as far north as Tanzania and F. angustifolia reaching to southern Kenya.
Taxonomy
The genus
Fockea Endl. was established in 1838 by the Austrian botanist Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher through illustration
and description
of a specimen of
Fockea capensis collected in
Cape Colony circa 1786 by
Franz Boos and
Georg Scholl and cultivated at Schönbrunn Garden in Vienna.
[ The genus was named after the German physician and naturalist Gustav Woldemar Focke, author of the commentary De respiratione vegetabilium ( Of the respiration of vegetables).][ The "Old Lady of Schönbrunn" — the oldest potted succulent in cultivation — continued to be cultivated at least through 1988, over 200 years after it was first collected by Boos and Scholl.]
Most Fockea species are relatively small climbers with swollen, mostly subterranean , whereas Fockea multiflora, a widely distributed but exclusively tropical species, is a massive, tropical liana without a tuber.[
]
- Species
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Fockea angustifolia K.Schum. — A climbing tuberous Storage organ found primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome, ranging from Southeast Kenya to South Africa.
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Fockea capensis Endl. — A climbing tuberous geophyte found primarily in the subtropical biome; its native range is the southern Cape Provinces of South Africa.
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Fockea comaru (E.Mey.) N.E.Br. - A tuberous geophyte found primarily in the desert or dry shrubland biome, ranging from southern Namibia to South Africa's Cape Provinces.
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Fockea edulis (Thunb.) K.Schum. - A climbing tuberous geophyte found primarily in the subtropical biome, ranging from the southern Cape Provinces to KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
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Fockea multiflora K.Schum. - A semisucculent liana growing primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome, ranging from Tanzania to northern Namibia.
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Fockea sinuata (E.Mey.) Druce - A climbing tuberous geophyte growing primarily in the desert or dry shrubland biome, ranging from south-central and southern Namibia to the Cape Provinces and Free State province of South Africa.
