What is "aphloia"

Aphloia is a genus of flowering plants that contains a single species, Aphloia theiformis, the sole species of the monogeneric family Aphloiaceae. It is a species of evergreen shrubs or small trees occurring in East Africa, Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands and the Seychelles.

The genus Aphloia was described by Bennett in 1840 and included in Flacourtiaceae, where most classifications continued to include it until Armen Takhtajan recognized its misplacement and created the new family Aphloiaceae in Violales to accommodate it. In 2003 the APG II system included Aphloiaceae in the Rosids without specifying an order. Matthews & Endress (2005) and Stevens (2006) include the family in an enlarged order Crossosomatales. The APG III system of 2009 followed suit and includes Aphloiaceae within the Crossosomatales.