''Balakata'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

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 a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as '' Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, ...

first described as a genus in 1999. It is native to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, southern China, the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over ...

, and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>
Malesian Euphorbiaceae Descriptions. Nationaal Herbarium Nederland.Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The genus name was inspired by ''balákat-gúbat'' ("shoulder-tree"), the Philippine common name for ''B. luzonica''. ''Balakata baccata'' grows up to 26 meters tall, while ''B. luzonica'' can reach . These trees have alternately arranged leaves long, usually with large basal glands on the undersides. The undersides are also whitish in color in ''B. baccata'', but not in ''B. luzonica''. The former has longer petioles than the latter. The trees are

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy i ...

, with

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

s containing several male flowers and usually at least one female flower at the base. The fruit is smooth and fleshy. That of ''B. baccata'' usually contains two seeds, while the fruit of ''B. luzonica'' has a single seed.Flora of China Vol. 11 Page 283 浆果乌桕属 jiang guo wu jiu shu ''Balakata'' Esser, Blumea. 44: 154. 1999.
/ref> Both species yield useful

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of ligni ...

; ''B. luzonica'' wood may have commercial value. ;Species # ''

Balakata baccata ''Balakata'' is a genus of trees in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1999. It is native to Southeast Asia, southern China, the Himalayas, and New Guinea.Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

, Bangladesh, Cambodia,

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, Bhutan,

Andaman & Nicobar The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated fro ...

, Borneo, Sumatra, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam # ''

Balakata luzonica ''Balakata luzonica'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is distributed from the Philippines to New Guinea.Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, Sulawesi, Maluku,

References

Hippomaneae Euphorbiaceae genera {{Euphorbiaceae-stub