Homalanthus is a plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbiaceae, the Spurge family are a large family of flowering plants with 300 genera and around 7,500 species. Most are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are also shrubs or trees. Some are succulent and resemble cacti....

 and the monogeneric subtribe Carumbiinae. It comprises about 35 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

. The genus is native to tropical Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

When published, the generic name was spelt as "Omalanthus". Since the name comes from the ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 word homalos meaning "smooth" and anthos meaning "flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

", this original spelling was inconsistent with the general Greek transliteration rules, and many later authors changed it to Homalanthus. According to ICBN, Homalanthus, which can be found in its Appendix III, has now been conserved against the original Omalanthus.

Synonyms

This genus is also known as:

• Carumbium Reinw.
• Dibrachion Regel
  Eduard August von Regel
  Eduard August von Regel was a German horticulturalist and botanist. He ended his career serving as the Director of the Russian Imperial Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg...
  
  
• Dibrachium Walp.
• Duania Noronha
  Francisco Noronha
  Father Francisco Noronha was a Spanish physician and botanist who resided for some time at Manila, Luzon, Philippines, where he took much effort to organize the Royal Botanic Garden and stock it with valuable plants...
  
  
• Omalanthus A.Juss.
  Adrien-Henri de Jussieu
  Adrien-Henri de Jussieu was a French botanist.Born in Paris as the son of botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1824 with a treatise of the plant family Euphorbiaceae. When his father retired in 1826, he succeeded him at the Jardin des Plantes; in...
  
  , orth. var.
• Wartmannia Müll.Arg.

Species include

• Homalanthus acuminatus
• Homalanthus fastuosus
• Homalanthus novoguineensis
• Homalanthus nutans
  Homalanthus nutans
  Homalanthus nutans, known locally as the mamala tree, is a species of plant in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is found in Samoa. Samoan healers use a concoction made from the bark to treat hepatitis. Research has indicated that a protein from the bark called prostratin has the potential to act as a...
  
  
• Homalanthus populifolius
• Homalanthus polyandrus
  Homalanthus polyandrus
  Homalanthus polyandrus is a species of plant in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is endemic to New Zealand.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 21 August 2007....
  
  
• Homalanthus stokesii
• Homalanthus sulawesianus