The genus ''Basella'' is the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

of the plant family

Basellaceae Basellaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Caryophyllales, in the clade core eudicots, according to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. The family comprises 19 known species of herbaceous plants in four genera: * ''Anredera'' – 12 sp ...

. ''Basella'' contains five known species.''Basella''.
The Plant List. Three species are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, and one is

to southeastern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The fifth is widespread across

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

, and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> The genus name is derived from the south Indian name ''Basale'' which Hendrik Rheede recorded in Malabar as ''Basella'' in his ''

Hortus Malabaricus ''Hortus Malabaricus'' (meaning "Garden of Malabar") is a 17th-century botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of flora of the Malabar coast (the Western Ghats district, a region principally covering the areas which are presently in th ...

''. The name was utilitized by Linnaeus.

Species

# ''

Basella alba ''Basella alba'' is an edible perennial vine in the family Basellaceae. It is found in tropical Asia and Africa where it is widely used as a leaf vegetable. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and New Guinea. It is naturaliz ...

'' L. - Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, New Guinea; naturalized in Africa, southern China, Central America, and various oceanic islands # '' Basella excavata'' Scott-Elliot - Madagascar # '' Basella leandriana'' H.Perrier - Madagascar # '' Basella madagascariensis'' Boivin ex. H.Perrier - Madagascar # '' Basella paniculata'' Volkens - Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Transvaal, Kwazulu-Natal

References

External links

''Basella alba''
i

Basellaceae Caryophyllales genera {{Caryophyllales-stub