Martynia is a monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 genus in the Martyniaceae

Martyniaceae

Martyniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the Lamiales order that are restricted to the New World. The family was included in Pedaliaceae in the Cronquist system but is recognized as a separate family by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group on the basis of phylogenetic studies that show that the...

 consisting of a single species, Martynia annua, commonly known as the cat's claw, and is endemic to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It is a popular material for basket making among Native American tribes in the Southwest. The genus and species were first validly described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 publication Species Plantarum

Species Plantarum

Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...

. It was first collected, however, by the Scottish naval surgeon William Houstoun

William Houstoun (botanist)

William Houstoun was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who retrieved plants from Mexico and South America.He was born in Houston, Renfrewshire. He began a degree course in medicine at St Andrew's University but completed his medical training at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1729...

 near Veracruz, Mexico

Veracruz, Veracruz

Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...

. Houstoun sent seeds of this new plant to Philip Miller

Philip Miller

Philip Miller FRS was a Scottish botanist.Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death...

, chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden

Chelsea Physic Garden

The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London, England in 1673. It is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, which was founded in 1621.Its rock garden is the oldest English garden devoted to alpine plants...

, in 1731. Houstoun took the opportunity to name the plant Martynia in honor of a professor of botany at Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, John Martyn

John Martyn (botanist)

John Martyn or Joannis Martyn was an English botanist.Martyn's is best known for his Historia Plantarum Rariorum , and his translation, with valuable agricultural and botanical notes, of the Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil...

. The plant was first seen in print in Martyn's famous work Historia Plantarum Rariorum, with a full description and illustration. In this pre-Linnaean nomenclature era, Martyn gave the species the following descriptive name: Martynia annua villosa et viscosa, folio subrotundo, flore magno rubro.