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Coix

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Coix
Coix lacryma-jobi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Supertribe: Andropogonodae
Tribe: Andropogoneae
Subtribe: Coicinae
Rchb. ex Clayton & Renvoize
Genus: Coix
L.
Type species
Coix lacryma-jobi
Synonyms[2]
  • Lachrymaria Heist. ex Fabr.
  • Lachryma-jobi Ortega
  • Lithagrostis Gaertn.
  • Lacryma Medik.
  • Sphaerium Kuntze

Coix /ˈkɪks/ is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family.[3][4]

The best-known species is Coix lacryma-jobi, widely called Job's tears. Its variety Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen is cultivated in many warm regions as a source of food, medicine, and ornamentation.[5][6]

The generic name is from Ancient Greek κόϊξ (koix), which originally referred to the doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica); the fruits of the doum palm resemble the diaspores of Coix.[7]

Species

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[2][8]

Formerly Included

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[2] see Chionachne Polytoca Tripsacum

Formerly included in

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This genus was formerly placed in the Maydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.[Sch 1]

Proteins and expression

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Members of this genus produce their own variety of α-zein prolamins. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.[Sch 2]

References

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  1. ^ lectotype designated by Green, Prop. Brit. Bot.: 187 (1929)
  2. ^ a b c "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew". wcsp.science.kew.org.
  3. ^ Linnaeus, Carl von. 1753. Species Plantarum 2: 972 in Latin
  4. ^ "Tropicos". www.tropicos.org.
  5. ^ Hill,A.F. 1952. Economic Botany, McGraw-Hill
  6. ^ Arora, R. K., 1977, "Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) - a minor food and fodder crop of northeastern India." Economic Botany, Volume 31, issue 3, pages 358–366.
  7. ^ Clifford, Harold T.; Bostock, Peter D. (May 16, 2007). Etymological Dictionary of Grasses. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783540384342 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "Search results — The Plant List". www.theplantlist.org.
  1. ^ p. 331, "Maize and Tripsacum were previously grouped with a number of other grasses that have monoecious flowering patterns — the most widely known being Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) — into the Maydeae (74); however, molecular data revealed that this grouping was polyphyletic (61)."
  2. ^ p. 335, "Clusters of locally duplicated genes can also expand and contract rapidly, as shown by investigation of the 22-kDa α zein gene families in maize, sorghum, and coix, which appear to have experienced independent copy-number amplifications since the divergence of these three species (107)."
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