''Foetidia'' is a 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 first described as a genus in 1788. Most authors place the genus in the family

Lecythidaceae The Lecythidaceae comprise a family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia. The most important member of the family in world trade is the B ...

, the sole genus in the subfamily Foetidioideae, but some prefer to treat it as a distinct family, the Foetidiaceae.''Foetidia''
(as Foetidiaceae) i
L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants.
It is native to eastern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and to various islands in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> ;Species The wood of '' Foetidia mauritiana'' is one of several woods known as stinkwood because of its unpleasant smell.

References

Lecythidaceae Ericales genera Taxa named by Philibert Commerson {{tree-stub