Helicia

Helicia
Helicia cochinchinensis (type species), botanical specimen in the Miyajima Natural Botanical Garden, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, Japan.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Helicia Lour.
Type species
Helicia cochinchinensis Lour.

Helicia is a genus of around 100 species of trees and shrubs, constituting part of the plant family Proteaceae. They grow naturally in rainforests in New Guinea, Malesia, southern and eastern Asia and Australia.

At global, national and regional government scales, many Helicia species have been threatened with extinction, as officially recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and by continental, national and local governments. Sixteen species have official IUCN global conservation statuses of either "critically endangered", "endangered", "vulnerable" or "near threatened" (in terms of global extinction).

In 1790, notable pioneer botanist João de Loureiro described this genus as Helicia in his publication Flora Cochinchinensis. The type species for the genus was Helicia cochinchinensis, the type specimen of which was collected in Cochinchina, Vietnam. The genus name derives from the Greek word "έλιξ" (élix), which refers to the petals, now called tepals, spirally revolving or simply rolling or coiling up on themselves, at anthesis (the flowering time when the anthers open).

In 1831, botanist Nathaniel Wallich named Helicia robusta for a dried specimen of a cultivated plant in India, based on the specimen's earlier 1814 name Roupala robusta by William Roxburgh. Roxburgh's Calcutta botanic gardens cultivated the plant.

From the 1850s to the 1860s notable German–Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller formally described several new Australian species. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Frederick M. Bailey concentrated further on additional Queensland species, writing descriptions of them in numerous scientific papers.

...
Wikipedia