''Dalechampia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

and of the

monogeneric In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plant ...

Dalechampiinae. It is widespread across lowland tropical areas (generally below 2,000 m

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

) primarily in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

with smaller numbers of species in

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 ...

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 southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> Additional new species are still being described and several are very rare and at risk of

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

ion.Flora of China Vol. 11 Page 258 黄蓉花属 huang rong hua shu ''Dalechampia'' Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1054. 1753.
/ref> ''Dalechampia'' has unisexual flowers that are secondarily united into bisexual blossoms (pseudanthia), which act as the pollination units. The pollination and floral evolution of this genus have been studied more intensively than perhaps any other member of the euphorbia family. In the neotropics (Americas), most species are pollinated by

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

-collecting female bees, including

euglossine The tribe (biology), tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of Pollen basket, corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess Eusociality, eusocial behavior. ...

bees and ''

Hypanthidium ''Hypanthidium'' is a genus of bees belonging to the family Megachilidae Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Both that their pollen-carrying structure (called a ''scopa'') is restricted to the ventral surface of th ...

'' of the

Megachilidae Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Both that their pollen-carrying structure (called a ''scopa'') is restricted to the ventral surface of the abdomen (rather than mostly or exclusively on the hind legs as in other b ...

, which use resin in nest construction. About a dozen neotropical species (including ''D. spathulata'', shown below) are pollinated by fragrance-collecting male euglossine bees, which use these fragrances to attract females for mating. There are at least three independent pollination shifts from pollination by female resin-collecting bees to pollination by male fragrance-collecting bees. African and Asian species are also pollinated by resin-collecting megachilid bees, but Malagasy species are pollinated by pollen-feeding

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and pollen-collecting bees. Two species are of

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

interest, '' D. spathulata'' and '' D. aristolochiifolia'', have particularly showy blossoms with bright pink/purple bracts. '' Dalechampia aristolochiifolia'', from Peru, has become very popular recently, but it is mistakenly advertised and distributed under the name '' D. dioscoreifolia''. Dalechampiaaristolochiifolia

Flickr - João de Deus Medeiros - Dalechampia caperonioides

Flickr - João de Deus Medeiros - Dalechampia linearis

Dalechampia schippii Rio On Pools Belize D Barthel

;Species

References

*Armbruster WS. 1984. The role of resin in angiosperm pollination: ecological and chemical considerations. American Journal of Botany 71: 1149–1160. *Armbruster WS. 1985. Patterns of character divergence and the evolution of reproductive ecotypes of ''Dalechampia scandens'' (Euphorbiaceae). Evolution 39: 733–752. *Armbruster WS. 1988. Multilevel comparative analysis of morphology, function, and evolution of ''Dalechampia'' blossoms. Ecology 69: 1746–1761. *Armbruster WS. 1990. Estimating and testing the shapes of adaptive surfaces: the morphology and pollination of ''Dalechampia'' blossoms. American Naturalist 135: 14–31. *Armbruster WS, Gong Y-B, Huang S-Q. 2011. Are pollination “syndromes” predictive? --Asian ''Dalechampia'' fit neotropical models. American Naturalist 178: 135–143. *Armbruster WS, Lee J, Edwards ME, Baldwin BG. 2013. Floral paedomorphy leads to secondary specialization in pollination of Madagascar ''Dalechampia'' (Euphorbiaceae). Evolution 67:1196–1203. *Armbruster WS, Herzig AL, 1984. Partitioning and sharing of pollinators by four sympatric species of ''Dalechampia'' (Euphorbiaceae) in Panama. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 71: 1–16. *Webster GL, Armbruster WS. 1991. A synopsis of the neotropical species of ''Dalechampia''. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, London 105: 137–177. *Webster GL, Webster BD. 1972. Morphology and relationships of ''Dalechampia scandens'' (Euphorbiaceae). American Journal of Botany 59: 573–586. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5210733 Plukenetieae Euphorbiaceae genera