''Cananga'' (ultimately from

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesi ...

*''kanaŋa'') is a small genus of trees in the family

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest family in the Ma ...

, native to

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

and

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. Th ...

, but introduced elsewhere. One of its species, ''

Cananga odorata ''Cananga odorata'', known as ylang-ylang ( ) or cananga tree, is a tropical tree that is native to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is also native to parts of Thailand and Viet ...

'', is important as the source of the perfume

ylang-ylang ''Cananga odorata'', known as ylang-ylang ( ) or cananga tree, is a tropical tree that is native to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is also native to parts of Thailand and Viet ...

Species

Two species are recognized: * '' Cananga brandisiana'' (Pierre) Saff., syn. ''Cananga latifolia'' (Hook.f. & Thomson) Finet & Gagnep. * ''

'' (Lam.) Hook.f. & Thomson ''Cananga latifolia'' is listed as a separate species in some sources, but the basionym, ''Unona latifolia'' Hook.f. & Thomson, is a later

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...

of ''Unona latifolia'' Dunal and so is not an acceptable name. ''Unona brandisiana'' was explicitly proposed as a replacement name.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3264724 Annonaceae Annonaceae genera