Hura (plant)

Hura
Hura crepitans
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Euphorbiaceae
Subfamily:	Euphorbioideae
Tribe:	Hureae
Genus:	Hura L. 1753 not J. Koenig 1783 (now syn of Globba in Zingiberaceae)

Hura is a genus of trees in the family Euphorbiaceae described by Linnaeus in 1753.^[1][2] It is native to South America, Mesoamerica, and the West Indies.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Species^[3]

1. Hura crepitans L. - from Nicaragua + Bahamas south to Bolivia; naturalized in parts of Africa (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, Central African Republic)
2. Hura polyandra Baill. - Mexico, Central America, Ecuador

names in homonymic genus ^[8][9]

In 1783, Johann Gerhard Koenig used the name Hura to refer to a very different plant from the one Linnaeus had named. Thus was created an illegitimate homonym.^[10][9] Under the rules of nomenclature, Koenig's name had to be abandoned. The two names created using his genus are now in the genus Globba, as follows:

1. Hura koenigii - Globba pendula (Zingiberaceae)
2. Hura siamensium - Globba pendula (Zingiberaceae)

Detail of the spines on the bark of a Hura tree

References

1. Linnaeus, Carl von. 1753. Species Plantarum 2: 1008 in Latin
2. Tropicos, Hura L.
3. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Hura L.
4. Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
5. Forzza, R. C. 2010. Lista de espécies Flora do Brasil http://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/2010. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
6. Martínez Gordillo, M., J. J. Ramírez, R. C. Durán, E. J. Arriaga, R. García, A. Cervantes & R. M. Hernández. 2002. Los géneros de la familia Euphorbiaceae en México. Anales del Instituto de Biología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Botánica 73(2): 155–281.
7. González Ramírez, J. 2010. Euphorbiaceae. En: Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica. Vol. 5. B.E. Hammel, M.H. Grayum, C. Herrera & N. Zamora (eds.). Monographs in systematic botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 119: 290–394
8. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Hura J.Koenig in A.J.Retzius
9. Tropicos, Hura J. Koenig
10. in Retzius, Anders Jahan. 1783 Observationes Botanicae 3: 37 ("49").