''Nichallea'' is a

monotypic 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 ...

genus 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 belonging to the family Rubiaceae. It only contains one species, ''Nichallea soyauxii''. Its native range is western and western central

Tropical Africa Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the tropi ...

. It is found in the countries of Cabinda (Angola), Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zaïre. The genus name of ''Nichallea'' is in honour of Nicolas Hallé, a French botanist at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

and was a specialist in Rubiaceae. The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of ''soyauxii'' refers Hermann Soyaux (1852–1928), a German gardener, botanist and African explorer. Both the genus and the species were first described and published in Kew Bull. Vol.33 on page 288–290 in 1978.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5410042, from2=Q15479955 Pavetteae Rubiaceae genera Plants described in 1978 Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Taxa named by Diane Mary Bridson