''Pakaraimaea'' is a genus of
trees
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 u ...
in the family
Cistaceae
The Cistaceae are a small family of plants (rock-rose or rock rose family) known for their beautiful shrubs, which are profusely covered by flowers at the time of blossom. This family consists of about 170(-200) species in nine genera that are ...
.
The genus contains a single species, ''Pakaraimaea dipterocarpacea'', from
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 sout ...
. The species is found in the
western highlands of
Guyana and in adjacent
Bolivar State in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. It maintains strong
ectomycorrhizal associations with a wide variety of fungal species. The trees can sometimes be seen forming large stands in the western
Guyanas
The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories:
* French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France
* G ...
.
As of
APG IV
The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publishe ...
, the species has been moved out of the
Dipterocarpaceae (formerly in subfamily Pakaraimoideae) and is now placed within an expanded Cistaceae due to molecular evidence showing that it is sister to the remainder of Cistaceae.
References
Dipterocarpaceae
Monotypic Malvales genera
Cistaceae
{{Malvales-stub