Protium is a 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 more than 140 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...

 of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in 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...

 Burseraceae

Burseraceae

Burseraceae is a moderate-sized family of 17-18 genera and about 540 species of flowering plants. The actual numbers differ according to the time period in which a given source is written describing this family. The Burseraceae is also known as the Torchwood family, the frankincense and myrrh...

. It is native to the Neotropics (where more than 100 species occur), Madagascar

Madagascar

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

, New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

, and southern 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...

 from Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 east to Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. The genus was for some times included in Bursera

Bursera

Bursera, named after the Danish botanist Joachim Burser is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size upwards to 25 m. high...

, but is well distinct, being most closely related to Crepidospermum and Tetragastris

Tetragastris

Tetragastris is a genus of plant in family Burseraceae. It contains the following species :* Tetragastris tomentosa, D.M. Porter...

.

The species are usually small or medium sized 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, but some can be large, up to 35 meters tall. In their native range, some species are grown for timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

, used as firewood

Firewood

Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....

, as medicinal plants, for their fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, or in other cultural contexts.

Selected species

• Protium almecega March.
• Protium apiculatum Sw.
• Protium aracouchini
• Protium asperum
  Protium asperum
  Protium asperum is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and possibly Bolivia.-References:* Mitré, M. 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  
• Protium attenuatum
  Protium attenuatum
  Protium attenuatum is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is found in Dominica, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.-Source:...
  
  
• Protium connarifolium
  Protium connarifolium
  Protium connarifolium is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is found in Malaysia and the Philippines.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  
• Protium correae
  Protium correae
  Protium correae is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Source:* Mitré, M. 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  
• Protium decandrum
• Protium elegans
• Protium gigantium
• Protium guianense
• Protium heptaphyllum Mart.
• Protium icicariba (= Icica icicariba)
• Protium inconforme
  Protium inconforme
  Protium inconforme is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is endemic to Panama. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Source:* Mitré, M. 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  
• Protium panamense
  Protium panamense
  Protium panamense is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. It is becoming rare due to habitat loss.-Source:* Mitré, M. 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  
• Protium pittieri
  Protium pittieri
  Protium pittieri is a species of plant in the Burseraceae family. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Source:* Mitré, M. 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  
• Protium serratum
• Protium widgrenii Engl.
  Adolf Engler
  Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, like Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien , edited with Karl A. E...