Coursetia is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae (order Fabales), described by French botanist Augustin Pyrame de Candolle in 1825. It comprises shrubs and small trees, and its members are known collectively by the common name "babybonnets." The genus is named for French botanist Georges Louis Marie Dumont de Courset (1746–1824).
Species of Coursetia are native to the Southwestern United States (Arizona, Texas) and Mexico, and range through Central America and the Caribbean into South America as far south as Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. This broad Neotropical distribution places the genus among the many legume genera that diversified across arid and semi-arid scrub, thorn-forest, and tropical dry-forest habitats of the Americas.
Taxonomically, several older segregate genera have since been folded into Coursetia as synonyms, including Benthamantha, Callistylon, Chiovendaea, Cracca (a conserved name), Humboldtiella, and Neocracca — reflecting a history of taxonomic revision within the tribe Robinieae. Notable species include Coursetia glandulosa ("rosary babybonnets"), the species most often illustrated for the genus, and Coursetia axillaris ("Texas babybonnets"), which reaches the northern edge of the genus's range in Texas.
Etymology
Coursetia was named in honor of French botanist Georges Louis Marie Dumont de Courset (1746–1824).
Distribution
Native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico, and ranging through Central America and the Caribbean into South America as far south as Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
Taxonomy Notes
Several older segregate genera — Benthamantha, Callistylon, Chiovendaea, Cracca (nom. cons.), Humboldtiella, and Neocracca — are now treated as synonyms of Coursetia, which sits in tribe Robinieae within Fabaceae.
