Lacomucinaea lineata fruit

The ripe Lacomucinaea lineata fruit, white and fleshy, and the slightly smaller green one show something of fruit development in this species.

The elliptoid fruit ends in a tight ring of the five lobes of the earlier perianth, now no longer spreading. Opening and closing like five valves, they are white inside for display during flowering, green outside presented during the bud stage and again on the fruit.

The new monotypic genus, Lacomucinaea, created to house only this plant (so far), is closely related to another genus of the South African Santalaceae family, Osyridicarpos that also has only one species, Osyridicarpos schimperianus.

By removing L. lineata from the big genus renders Thesium monophyletic, i.e. a taxon that includes only organisms descended from one single ancestor. This is an objective adhered to in decisions relating to the classification of species (Lacomucinaea, a new monotypic genus in Thesiaceae (Santalales) by Nickrent and Garcia, 2015, Researchgate; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).