''Dalechampia'' is a

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and of the monogeneric

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants). The first use of this word dates back to the late 19th century. An example of ...

Dalechampiinae. It is widespread across lowland tropical areas (generally below 2,000 m ASL) primarily in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

with smaller numbers of species in

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 ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, and southern

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 ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> Additional new species are still being described and several are very rare and at risk of

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

ion.Flora of China Vol. 11 Page 258 黄蓉花属 huang rong hua shu ''Dalechampia'' Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1054. 1753.
/ref> ''Dalechampia'' has unisexual flowers that are secondarily united into bisexual blossoms (pseudanthia), which act as the pollination units. The pollination and floral evolution of this genus have been studied more intensively than perhaps any other member of the euphorbia family. In the neotropics (Americas), most species are pollinated by

resin A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...

-collecting female bees, including euglossine bees and '' Hypanthidium'' of the

Megachilidae Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Characteristic traits of this family are the restriction of their pollen-carrying structure (called a '' scopa'') to the ventral surface of the abdomen (rather than mostly or exclu ...

, which use resin in nest construction. About a dozen neotropical species (including ''D. spathulata'', shown below) are pollinated by fragrance-collecting male euglossine bees, which use these fragrances to attract females for mating. There are at least three independent pollination shifts from pollination by female resin-collecting bees to pollination by male fragrance-collecting bees. African and Asian species are also pollinated by resin-collecting megachilid bees, but Malagasy species are pollinated by pollen-feeding

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s and pollen-collecting bees. Two species are of

horticultural Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

interest, '' D. spathulata'' and '' D. aristolochiifolia'', have particularly showy blossoms with bright pink/purple bracts. '' Dalechampia aristolochiifolia'', from Peru, has become very popular recently, but it is mistakenly advertised and distributed under the name '' D. dioscoreifolia''. Dalechampiaaristolochiifolia

;Species

References

*Armbruster WS. 1984. The role of resin in angiosperm pollination: ecological and chemical considerations. American Journal of Botany 71: 1149–1160. *Armbruster WS. 1985. Patterns of character divergence and the evolution of reproductive ecotypes of ''Dalechampia scandens'' (Euphorbiaceae). Evolution 39: 733–752. *Armbruster WS. 1988. Multilevel comparative analysis of morphology, function, and evolution of ''Dalechampia'' blossoms. Ecology 69: 1746–1761. *Armbruster WS. 1990. Estimating and testing the shapes of adaptive surfaces: the morphology and pollination of ''Dalechampia'' blossoms. American Naturalist 135: 14–31. *Armbruster WS, Gong Y-B, Huang S-Q. 2011. Are pollination “syndromes” predictive? --Asian ''Dalechampia'' fit neotropical models. American Naturalist 178: 135–143. *Armbruster WS, Lee J, Edwards ME, Baldwin BG. 2013. Floral paedomorphy leads to secondary specialization in pollination of Madagascar ''Dalechampia'' (Euphorbiaceae). Evolution 67:1196–1203. *Armbruster WS, Herzig AL, 1984. Partitioning and sharing of pollinators by four sympatric species of ''Dalechampia'' (Euphorbiaceae) in Panama. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 71: 1–16. *Webster GL, Armbruster WS. 1991. A synopsis of the neotropical species of ''Dalechampia''. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, London 105: 137–177. *Webster GL, Webster BD. 1972. Morphology and relationships of ''Dalechampia scandens'' (Euphorbiaceae). American Journal of Botany 59: 573–586. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5210733 Plukenetieae Euphorbiaceae genera