''Bhesa'' is a small genus of woody
plants
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
in the family
Centroplacaceae. Its natural distribution is from southern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
to
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
. It was formerly classified in
Celastraceae
The Celastraceae (staff-vine or bittersweet) are a family of 98 genera and 1,350 species of herbs, vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales. The great majority of the genera are tropical, with only ''Celastrus'' (the staf ...
, until a
molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
study placed it in the family
Centroplacaceae in the order
Malpighiales
The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest Order (biology), orders of flowering plants. The order is very diverse, with well-known members including willows, Viola (plant), violets, aspens and Populus, poplars, Euphorbia pulcherrima, poinsett ...
.
There are eight species:
* ''
Bhesa andamanica''
N.Balach. & Chakrab.
* ''
Bhesa archboldiana''
(Merr. & L.M.Perry) Ding Hou
* ''
Bhesa ceylanica''
(Arn. ex Thwaites) Ding Hou
* ''
Bhesa indica''
(Bedd.) Ding Hou
* ''
Bhesa nitidissima''
Kosterm.
* ''
Bhesa paniculata''
Arn.
* ''
Bhesa robusta''
(Roxb.) Ding Hou
* ''
Bhesa sinica''
(H.T.Chang & Liang) H.T.Chang & Liang
References
Malpighiales genera
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Malpighiales-stub