Kleinia is a genus of roughly 50–56 species of succulent shrubs and subshrubs belonging to the family Asteraceae (tribe Senecioneae). Plants are upright, perennial, and typically reach 1–2.5 metres in height, with characteristically fleshy stems 3–6 cm wide and tuberous roots. Flowers vary in colour from white to yellow or red, and the growth form ranges from compact subshrubs to larger woody shrubs.
The genus is distributed across a wide band of the Old World, from Morocco and the Canary Islands through Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, extending to South Asia and Indochina. Within this range it occupies arid and semi-arid habitats where the succulence of stems and leaves is a clear adaptation to seasonal drought.
Kleinia is closely related to the large genus Senecio, and the two have been treated as synonymous at various points in botanical history. Subsequent molecular phylogenetic work supported the re-recognition of Kleinia as a distinct genus, with succulence of vegetative tissue being the key morphological distinction. Synonyms applied to the group include Notonia DC. and Notoniopsis B. Nord. The genus was established by Philip Miller in 1754.
Etymology
Kleinia was named by the Scottish-born British botanist Philip Miller in 1754, in his Gardeners Dictionary Abridged (4th edition). The genus name honours Dr. Jacob Theodor Klein (1685–1759), a German-Polish naturalist and botanist based in Danzig (Gdańsk), known primarily for his work on zoology but also active in botany during the early eighteenth century.
Distribution
Kleinia is native across a broad Old World range stretching from northwest Africa — Morocco and the Canary Islands — south and east throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, including southern and eastern African countries such as Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as west African countries including Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Guinea. The range continues through the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea) and into the Arabian Peninsula, and extends to South Asia (India, including Assam) and Indochina. Isolated introduced populations have been recorded in El Salvador and Java, Indonesia. Within its native range the genus predominantly occupies arid, semi-arid, and seasonally dry habitats.
Taxonomy
Kleinia Mill. (1754) belongs to the tribe Senecioneae within Asteraceae and has a historically complicated relationship with the genus Senecio L. Various authors have subsumed Kleinia into Senecio as a subgenus or section, and names such as Notonia DC. and Notoniopsis B. Nord. have been applied to overlapping circumscriptions. The distinguishing feature of Kleinia as currently accepted is the succulence of stems or leaves, a character absent or weakly expressed in typical Senecio. Molecular phylogenetic studies supported reinstating Kleinia as a genus separate from Senecio. GBIF records approximately 80 descendant taxa under Kleinia Mill. (usageKey 8048745), with accepted species numbering around 50–56 according to current treatments.
Uses
Species of Kleinia are used in traditional herbal medicine across parts of their native range in Africa and South Asia. The extent and specific applications vary by region and species; ethnopharmacological research has documented such uses without centralising them to a single treatment system.
