''Hillia'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules a ...
. It has 24
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
.
[''Hillia'' At: World Checklist of Rubiaceae At: Kew Gardens Website. (see ''External links'' below).] All are
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
to
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
America.
[David J. Mabberley. 2008. ''Mabberley's Plant-Book'' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. ]
Most of the species are slightly
succulent epiphytes or small
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s. A few are
subshrubs or
lianas. ''Hillia rivalis'' is a
rheophyte
A rheophyte is a plant that lives in fast moving water currents in an environment where few other organisms can survive. Rheophytes tend to be found in currents that move at rates of one to two meters per second and that are up to 1 to 2 m deep. Th ...
. The
tissues of all the species contain
raphide
Raphides (pronounced /ˈræfɪˌdiz/, singular raphide /ˈreɪfʌɪd/ or raphis) are needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate monohydrate (prismatic monoclinic crystals) or calcium carbonate as aragonite ( dipyramidal orthorhombic crystals), fo ...
s. The
capsules have a beak-like appendage.
[Charlotte M. Taylor. 1994. "Revision of ''Hillia'' (Rubiaceae)". '']Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
The ''Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden'' is a long-established major peer-reviewed journal of botany, established in 1914 by the Missouri Botanical Garden, under the directorship of botanist and phycologist, George Thomas Moore, and still p ...
'' 81(4):571-609.
''Hillia triflora'' is
cultivated as an
ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...
.
[Anthony J. Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (editors). 1992. ''The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening.'' The Macmillan Press Limited, London; The Stockton Press, New York. (set)]
''Hillia'' was
named by
Nicolaus Jacquin in 1760.
[''Hillia'' in International Plant Names Index. (see ''External links'' below).][Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. 1760. ''Enumeratio systematica plantarum, quas in insulis Caribaeis vicinaque Americes continente detexit nouas, aut iam cognitas emandauit'' pages 3 and 18. (see ''External links'' below).] It was named for the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
botanist John Hill (1716-1775).
[Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'' volume II. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington,DC;, USA. London, UK. (vol. II). (see ''External links'' below).] Jacquin named only one species, ''Hillia parasitica''. It has been suggested that the
specific epithet as well as the
generic name might well be a reference to John Hill.
Some authors have placed five of the species in a
separate genus, ''Ravnia''. A
cladistic
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...
analysis of
morphological characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
found ''Ravnia'' to be
embedded within ''Hillia''.
This
hypothesis
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...
has not been
tested
''Tested'' is a live album by punk rock band Bad Religion. It was recorded in the USA, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Italy and Austria, in 1996, and released in 1997. It is Bad Religion's second live album. Instead of using crowd microphon ...
with
molecular data
In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succi ...
.
The genera ''Hillia'', ''
Balmea
''Balmea'' is a monotypic taxon, monospecific genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing the single species ''Balmea stormiae''. It is native to El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico (Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, ...
'', and ''
Cosmibuena'' form a
monophyletic group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
. Some authors have designated this group as the
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
Hillieae, but it might be embedded within another tribe, Hamelieae.
[Ulrika Manns and Birgitta Bremer. 2010. "Towards a better understanding of intertribal relationships and stable tribal delimitations within Cinchonoideae s.s. (Rubiaceae)". ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 56(1):21-39. ]
Species
The following species list may be incomplete or contain
synonyms.
References
External links
''Hillia''Search PageScience DirectoryKew Gardens''Hillia''Plant NamesIPNI''Hillia'', page 3''Hillia'', page 18''Enumeratio systematica plantarumTitlesBotanicusCRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: D-LBotany & Plant ScienceLife ScienceCRC Press''Hillia''List of GeneraRubiaceaeList of familiesFamilies and Genera in GRINQueriesGRIN taxonomy for plants''Hillia''HillieaeCinchonoideaeRubiaceaeEmbryophytaStreptophytinaStreptophytaViridiplantaeEudaryotaTaxonomyUniProt
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5577582
Rubiaceae genera
Hillieae