''Alchornea'' is a

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

first described as a genus in 1788. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, South

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, and various oceanic islands. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that '' Bocquillonia'' from

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

is nested in ''Alchornea''.Wurdack, K. J., P. Hoffmann, and M. W. Chase (2005). Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis of Uniovulate Euphorbiaceae (Euphorbiaceae Sensu Stricto) Using Plastid rbcL and trnL-F DNA Sequences.” American Journal of Botany 92(8): 1397–1420. ;Species ;formerly included moved to other genera ''( Aparisthmium Cleidion Cnesmone Discocleidion Discoglypremna Necepsia Neoscortechinia

Orfilea ''Orfilea'' is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1858. It is native to Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean.Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliograph ...

Sampantaea Trigonostemon Wetria )''

References

Alchorneae Euphorbiaceae genera Taxa named by Olof Swartz {{medicinal-plant-stub