Azima is a small genus of thorny flowering shrubs in the family Salvadoraceae, within the order Brassicales. Described by the French botanist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1789 (Encyclopédie Méthodique 1: 343), the genus comprises three accepted species distributed across tropical and southern Africa, tropical Asia, and New Guinea.
Plants in the genus are typically armed shrubs or small trees with stiff, spine-tipped leaves or axillary spines — a characteristic reflected in the most widespread species, Azima tetracantha Lam. (meaning "four-spined"). The genus belongs to the family Salvadoraceae, a small family of woody plants notable for containing the toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica).
The three accepted species are Azima tetracantha Lam., Azima sarmentosa (Blume) Benth. & Hook.f., and Azima angustifolia A.DC. Azima tetracantha is the most widely distributed member, occurring across sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent, and into Southeast Asia, where it grows in coastal scrub, dry forests, and disturbed habitats.
Etymology
The genus name Azima was coined by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1789; the precise derivation is not recorded in available sources. The type species, Azima tetracantha, takes its epithet from the Greek tetra- (four) and akantha (thorn or spine), referring to the plant's characteristic paired axillary spines.
Distribution
Azima species are native to a broad pantropical belt spanning sub-Saharan and southern Africa (including Madagascar, Comoros, Aldabra, and Mauritius), the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh), and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Hainan, Java, and the Lesser Sunda Islands), extending to New Guinea. The genus is absent from the Americas and Australia.
Taxonomy Notes
Azima Lam. (1789) is placed in the family Salvadoraceae, order Brassicales, class Magnoliopsida. Three species are currently accepted: A. tetracantha Lam., A. sarmentosa (Blume) Benth. & Hook.f., and A. angustifolia A.DC. The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy records the genus under key 7266289 with authorship attributed to Lamarck.
