''Ichthyothere'' is a genus of flowering plants, found in parts of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

(the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

) and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. The name ''ichthyothere'' literally translates as ''fish poison''. These plants' active constituent is a chemical called

ichthyothereol Ichthyothereol is a toxic polyyne compound found in the leaves and flowers of several plants in South and Central America. These plant sources and their extracts are known for their toxic effects on fish, and have long been used by various native ...

, which is a

polyyne In organic chemistry, a polyyne () is any organic compound with alternating single and triple bonds; that is, a series of consecutive alkynes, with ''n'' greater than 1. These compounds are also called polyacetylenes, especially in the natural ...

compound that is highly

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

and

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fu ...

. ''Ichthyothere terminalis'' leaves have traditionally been used to make poisoned bait by indigenous peoples of the lower

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Boli ...

. This genus is characterized by the small capitulum with few (usually one or two) fertile ray florets. It lacks an expanded outer series of herbaceous involucral bracts or phyllaries. These tend to be much reduced. ''Ichthyothere scandens'' and ''Ichthyothere garcia-barrigae'', both found at elevations above 1,000m, belong to a unique subgenus within ''Ichthyothere''. The other species are small

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

s with an erect

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushr ...

, showing tightly clustered or glomerulate groups of capitula. They occur below 1,000 m elevation. Its taxonomic status has been revised several times. It was classified in the subtribes Melampodiinae, Milleriinae and then in a group of unclassified taxa. Recent molecular phylogenetic research has now placed the genus ''Ichthyothere'' in the subtribe Espeletiinae. It may be a sister taxon to the ''

Espeletia ''Espeletia'', commonly known as 'frailejones' ("big monks"), is a genus of perennial subshrubs, in the family Asteraceae. The genus, which is native mainly to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, was first formally described in 1808. The genus was ...

'' complex.Molecular phylogenetics of the Espeletia complex (Asteraceae)
/ref> ;Species Species accepted by the

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants ...

as of December 2022:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3147701 Asteraceae genera