Listeria

Listeria is a genus of bacteria that contains 10 species, each containing two subspecies. Named after the British pioneer of sterile surgery Joseph Lister, the genus received its current name in 1940. Listeria species are gram-positive, rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic, and non spore-forming. The major human pathogen in the Listeria genus is L. monocytogenes. It is usually the causative agent of the relatively rare bacterial disease listeriosis, a serious infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacteria. The disease affects pregnant women, newborns, adults with weakened immune systems, and the elderly.

Listeriosis is a serious disease for humans; the overt form of the disease has a case-fatality rate of about 20%. The two main clinical manifestations are sepsis and meningitis. Meningitis is often complicated by encephalitis, when it is known as meningoencephalitis, a pathology that is unusual for bacterial infections. L. ivanovii is a pathogen of mammals, specifically ruminants, and has rarely caused listeriosis in humans.

Oldenlandia

Oldenlandia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is pantropical in distribution and has about 240 species. The type species for the genus is Oldenlandia corymbosa.

Oldenlandia was named by Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum. The name honors the Danish botanist Henrik Bernard Oldenland (c.1663-1699). Some species are important in ethnomedicine; a number (usually island endemics) are threatened species, with one species and one variety being completely extinct already.

Some botanists have not recognized Oldenlandia, but have placed some or all of its species in a broadly defined Hedyotis. More recently, the circumscription of Hedyotis has been narrowed to a monophyletic group of about 115 species and no longer includes Oldenlandia. The genus Oldenlandia, as presently defined, is several times polyphyletic and will eventually be reduced to a group of species closely related to the type species. This group, known informally as Oldenlandia sensu stricto, is sister to a section of Kohautia that will eventually be separated from Kohautia and named as a new genus.