''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species 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 in the family

Sapindaceae The Sapindaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1,858 accepted species. Examples include Aesculus, horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee. The ...

, native to tropical regions of northern and western

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. They are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s growing to tall, with alternate

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and ...

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet). The fruit is a

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

. Several species, but principally '' M. bijugatus'', are widely cultivated in their native areas and elsewhere in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

for their fruit. Some species of the related genus ''

Talisia ''Talisia'' is a genus of 52 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. The genus is closely related to ''Melicoccus'', with some species sometimes included in that genus. The species are e ...

'' are sometimes included in ''Melicoccus''. ;Species *''

Melicoccus antioquensis ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaf, leaves with 4 or 6 ...

'' Acevedo-Rodríguez — Colombia *''

Melicoccus aymardii ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' Acevedo-Rodríguez — Venezuela *''

Melicoccus bijugatus ''Melicoccus bijugatus'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalized across the New World tropics including South and Central America, and parts of the Caribbean. Its stone-bearing fruits, commonly called ...

'' Jacq. – Mamoncillo (

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

) *''

Melicoccus espritosantensis ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' Acevedo-Rodríguez — eastern Brazil *''

Melicoccus jimenezii ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' (Alain) Acevedo-Rodríguez — Dominican Republic *''

Melicoccus lepidopetalus ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

Radlk. Ludwig Adolph Timotheus Radlkofer (19 December 1829, in Munich – 16 February 1927, in Munich), was a Bavarian taxonomist and botanist. Radlkofer became a physician in 1854 and earned a PhD in botany at University of Jena, Jena the following yea ...

– Motoyoé or Yva Povo (

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, Brazil,

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

), Argentina *''

Melicoccus novogranatensis ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' Acevedo-Rodríguez — Colombia and Ecuador *''

Melicoccus oliviformis ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' HBK — Mexico, Central and South America and Trinidad *''

Melicoccus pedicellaris ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' (Sagot ex Radlk.) Acevedo-Rodríguez Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil *''

Melicoccus petiolutatus ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaves with 4 or 6 oppos ...

'' Acevedo-Rodríguez — Peru

Taxonomy

The genus ''Melicoccus'' was first described by Patrick Browne, an Irish doctor and botanist, in 1756. This description was based on ''M. bijugatus'' trees which were cultivated in Jamaica. In 1760,

Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (16 February 172726 October 1817) was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany. Biography Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to Par ...

described the first species in Browne's genus, which he named ''M. bijugatus''. In 1762 Linnaeus used a spelling variation of the name ''Melicocca bijuga''. Over the next two centuries, Linnaeus' spelling variation was used in almost all publications. A proposal was made in 1994 to conserve ''Melicocca'' over ''Melicoccus'', but the proposal was rejected, leading to a restoration of the original version of the name. In 1888 German taxonomist

Ludwig Radlkofer Ludwig Adolph Timotheus Radlkofer (19 December 1829, in Munich – 16 February 1927, in Munich), was a Bavarian taxonomist and botanist. Radlkofer became a physician in 1854 and earned a PhD in botany at Jena the following year. He became an asso ...

placed ''Melicoccus'' in the tribe Melicocceae together with eight other genera. In his monograph on the Neotropical members of the tribe (''

'' and ''Melicoccus'') Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez suggested that although ''Talisia'' and ''Melicoccus'' appeared to form a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group, the other (Old World) genera probably did not belong to the same lineage.

References

New World Fruits Database: ''Melicoccus lepidopetalus''
Sapindaceae genera Sapindaceae {{Sapindales-stub