Flueggea Genus

Flueggea, commonly called bushweeds, is a genus of 12–16 species of shrubs and trees belonging to the family Phyllanthaceae, within the order Malpighiales. The genus was first formally described in 1806 and is named in honour of Johann (John) Fluegge, an eighteenth-century German botanist specialising in cryptogams.

Members of Flueggea share a consistent set of morphological characters: the leaves are entire and ovate, the flowers are minute, green, and borne at the leaf axils in fascicles or cymes, and the fruit is a small berry roughly the size of a pea. Most species are dioecious — male and female flowers occurring on separate plants — with the notable exceptions of Flueggea verrucosa, F. spirei, and occasionally F. virosa.

The genus has a broad pantropical and subtropical distribution centred on Asia and Africa, extending to various oceanic islands, with outlier populations in South America and on the Iberian Peninsula. Several species were formerly placed in the genus Securinega, and classification revisions have transferred additional former members to the related genera Leptopus, Margaritaria, and Meineckia.

Notable members include Flueggea virosa, a widespread African and Asian shrub known for medicinal uses; Flueggea suffruticosa (formerly Securinega suffruticosa), whose alkaloids have been the subject of pharmacological research; and Flueggea neowawraea, a critically endangered tree endemic to the Hawaiian islands.