Omphalea 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 only genus of its tribe

Tribe (biology)

In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

 (Omphaleae). It comprises 17 species, all of which are tropical shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s, tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s or liana

Liana

A liana is any of various long-stemmed, woody vines that are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy to get access to well-lit areas of the forest. Lianas are especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous...

s. 12 of them are native to the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, 4 are endemic to Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

 and 1 to Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. They have monoecious, apetalous flowers and fleshy fruits with hard centers.

The plants are toxic and few animals can eat them. Diurnal moths of the subfamily Uraniinae

Uraniinae

The Uraniinae or uraniine moths are a subfamily of moths in the family Uraniidae. It contains seven genera that occur in the tropics of the world....

 feed on them. These moths are species of the genus Urania in the Americas, and of the genus Chrysiridia in Africa.

The single African species, from Tanzania is:

• O. mansfeldiana Mildbraed, a liana.

The Madagascan species are:

• O. ankaranensis, a shrub
  Shrub
  A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
  
   from the limestone karst of northern Madagascar
• O. palmata Leandri, a dry forest
  Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
  The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome, also known as tropical dry forest, is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimeters of rain per year, they have long dry seasons...
  
   shrub, closely related to O. ankaranensis, but from western Madagascar
• O. occidentalis Leandri, also a dry forest species of western Madagascar
• O. oppositifilia (Willdenow), a tree
  Tree
  A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
  
   from the east coast rainforest
  Rainforest
  Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
  
   of Madagascar

The Madagascan sunset moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus) feeds on all four of those species.

Synonymy

This genus is also known as:

• Duchola Adans.
  Michel Adanson
  Michel Adanson was a French naturalist of Scottish descent.Adanson was born at Aix-en-Provence. His family moved to Paris on 1730. After leaving the College Sainte Barbe he was employed in the cabinets of R. A. F. Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu, as well as in the Jardin des Plantes. At the end of...
  
  
• Hebecocca Beurl.
• Hecatea Thouars
  Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars
  Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars was an eminent French botanist.-Introduction:He was from an aristocrat family of the region of Anjou, where he grew up in the castle of Boumois, near Saumur...
  
  
• Neomphalea Pax & K.Hoffm.
• Omphalandria P.Browne
• Ronnowia Buc'hoz