Hura (plant)

Hura is a genus of trees in the family Euphorbiaceae described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.^[1][2] It is native to South America, Mesoamerica, and the West Indies.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Hura
Hura crepitans
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Euphorbiaceae
Subfamily:	Euphorbioideae
Tribe:	Hureae
Genus:	Hura L.
Species
Hura crepitans L. Hura polyandra Baill.

Species

1. Hura crepitans L. - from Nicaragua + Bahamas south to Bolivia; naturalized in parts of Africa (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, Central African Republic)^[3]
2. Hura polyandra Baill. - Mexico, Central America, Ecuador^[3]

Names in homonymic genus

In 1783, Johann Gerhard König used the name Hura to refer to a very different plant from the one Linnaeus had named. Thus was created an illegitimate homonym.^[8][9] Under the rules of nomenclature, Koenig's name had to be abandoned. The two names created using his genus are now in the genus Globba, as follows:

1. Hura koenigii - Globba pendula (Zingiberaceae)^[10][9]
2. Hura siamensium - Globba pendula (Zingiberaceae)^[10][9]

Detail of the spines on the bark of a Hura tree