''Neea'' is a genus of

plants 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 ...

in family

Nyctaginaceae Nyctaginaceae, the four o'clock family, is a family of around 33 genera and 290 species of flowering plants, widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, with a few representatives in temperate regions. The family has a unique fruit t ...

from the Caribbean region,

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. Members of the genus are commonly called ''Nia'', ''Neea'', or ''saltwood''. The genus was named by botanists José Pavón and Hipólito Ruiz in honor of

Luis Née Luis Née (July 12, 1735 – October 3, 1807) was a French-born Spanish botanist and prolific collector of plant specimens who accompanied the Malaspina Expedition on its five-year scientific exploration of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands. ...

, a botanist on the

Malaspina Expedition The Malaspina Expedition (1789–1794) was a five-year maritime scientific exploration commanded by Alessandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra. Although the expedition receives its name from Malaspina, he always insisted on giving Busta ...

.JSTOR Global PlantsParish registers. Le Perray-en-Yvelines. Archives départementales, Yvelines, France. It was first described and published in Fl. Peruv. Prodr. on page 52 in 1794. It is native to Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Mexico, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the southwest Caribbean, Suriname, Venezuela and Venezuelan Antilles.

Selected species

It contains the following species (but this list may be incomplete): * '' Neea acuminatissima'', Standl. see ''Neea amplifolia'' * ''Neea amaruayensis'', Steyerm * ''