Both species are shrubs. The leaves are hard and spine-tipped, much longer than wide, and either cylindrical or somewhat flattened. They are grooved with stripes running lengthwise. The type species is Hoplophyllum spinosum.[3]
Hoplophyllum is derived from two Greek words, hoplon "a tool or weapon" and phyllon "a leaf", a reference to the spiny leaves.[4]
^ abPer Ola Karis. 2007. "Arctotideae" pages 200-207. In: Klaus Kubitzki (series editor); Joachim W. Kadereit and Charles Jeffrey (volume editors). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume VIII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany. ISBN978-3-540-31050-1
^David J. Mabberley. 2008. Mabberley's Plant-Book third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. ISBN978-0-521-82071-4
^Hoplophyllum In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In: Regnum Vegetabile (see External links below).
^Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume II. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC;, USA. London, UK. ISBN978-0-8493-2676-9 (vol. II). (see External links below).
^Hoplophyllum At: International Plant Names Index. (see External links below).
^Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. 1836. Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis5:73-74. (see External links below).
^Carolus Linnaeus the Younger. 1782. Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium:357. (see External links below).
^Vicki A. Funk, Raymund Chan, Stirling C. Keeley. 2004. "Insights into the evolution of the tribe Arctoteae (Compositae: subfamily Cichorioideae s.s.) using trnL-F, ndhF, and ITS". Taxon53(3):637-655.
^Vicki A. Funk, Alfonso Susanna, Tod F. Stuessy, and Randall J. Bayer. 2009. Systematics, Evolution and Biogeography of the Compositae. IAPT (International Association for Plant Taxonomy). ISBN978-3-9501754-3-1 (see External links below).