''Foetidia'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s first described as a genus in 1788. Most authors place the genus in the family

Lecythidaceae The Lecythidaceae ( ) comprise a family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia. Well known members of the family include the cannonball tree ...

, the sole genus in the subfamily Foetidioideae, but some prefer to treat it as a distinct family, the Foetidiaceae.''Foetidia''
(as Foetidiaceae) i
L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants.
It is native to eastern

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 ...

and to various islands in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>

Species

Source: The wood of '' Foetidia mauritiana'' is one of several woods known as

stinkwood Stinkwood, German ''Stinkholz'', French ''Bois Puant'', is the common name for a number of trees or shrubs which have wood or plant parts with an unpleasant odour, including: *'' Anagyris foetida''; Southern Europe *'' Bignonia callistegioides'' (c ...

because of its unpleasant smell.

References

Lecythidaceae Ericales genera Taxa named by Philibert Commerson {{tree-stub