Withania
Encyclopedia
Withania is a genus of flowering plant
s in the nightshade
family, Solanaceae
.
, a British geologist and writer on fossil botany in the nineteenth century.
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the nightshade
Solanum
Solanum, the nightshades, horsenettles and relatives, is a large and diverse genus of annual and perennial plants. They grow as forbs, vines, subshrubs, shrubs, and small trees, and often have attractive fruit and flowers. Many formerly independent genera like Lycopersicon or Cyphomandra are...
family, Solanaceae
Solanaceae
Solanaceae are a family of flowering plants that include a number of important agricultural crops as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
.
Etymology
Withania Pauquy, Diss. Bellad. 14 (1825) (nom. cons.); Supposed to be in honour of Henry WithamHenry Witham
Henry T M Witham was the first English person to investigate the internal structure of fossil plants, and was a founder member of the Royal Geological Society....
, a British geologist and writer on fossil botany in the nineteenth century.
Selected species
- Withania adunensisWithania adunensisWithania adunensis is a species of plant in the Solanaceae family. It is endemic to Yemen. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland....
Vierh.Friedrich VierhapperFriedrich Vierhapper, 1876-1932, was an Austrian plant collector and botanist.- External links :... - Withania riebeckiiWithania riebeckiiWithania riebeckii is a species of plant in the Solanaceae family. It is endemic to Yemen. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.-References:...
Schweinf.Georg August SchweinfurthGeorg August Schweinfurth was a Baltic German botanist, traveller in East Central Africa and ethnologist.... - Withania somnifera (L.) DunalMichel Félix DunalMichel Felix Dunal was a French botanist. He was professor of botany in Montpellier, France. He held the chair of Medical Natural History from 1816 to 1819...
– Ashwaganda, Indian Ginseng, Winter Cherry - Withania coagulans (Dunal) – Paneer dodi, Ashutosh booti (Sanskrit, Hindi)