Philesia Comm. ex Juss.

Philesia is a genus of a single species from Argentina and Chile, closely allied to Lapageria. These are the only members of the family Philesiaceae which is considered to be sister to the Ripogonaceae, a family containing only a single genus (Ripogonum) of largely sub-tropical shrubs and woody climbers native to New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. Luzuriaga, which is found in some mild, wet gardens in our study area, used to be included in Philesiaceae but now sits in the Alstroemeriaceae (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2009). Philesia differs from Lapageria in being a rhizomatous shrub rather than having climbing stems. The generic name Philesia was chosen by Philibert Commerson (1727–1773), though published by Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748–1836), and comes from the Greek verb philein, to love.