Fontainea

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Rosids
Cladus: Eurosids I
Ordo: Malpighiales

Familia: Euphorbiaceae
Subfamilia: Crotonoideae
Tribus: Ricinocarpeae
Genus: Fontainea
Species: F. australis – F. borealis – F. fugax – F. oraria – F. pancheri – F. picrosperma – F. rostrata – F. subpapuana – F. venosa
Source(s) of checklist:

Govaerts, R. et al. 2020. Fontainea in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2020 Jun 12. Reference page.

Name

Fontainea Heckel, 1870. Étude Fontainea (Thèse Inaug. Montpellier): 9.

Type species: Fontainea pancheri (Baill.) Heckel.

References
Primary references

Heckel, É.M., 1870. Étude Fontainea (Thèse Inaug. Montpellier): 9.

Links

Govaerts, R. et al. 2020. Fontainea in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2020 Jun 12. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2020. Fontainea. Published online. Accessed: Jun 12 2020.
Govaerts, R. et al. 2020. Fontainea in Kew Science Plants of the World online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2020 Jun 12. Reference page.
Tropicos.org 2020. Fontainea. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 12 Jun 2020.

Vernacular names

Fontainea is a genus constituting part of the plant family Euphorbiaceae.[1][2][3][4] The nine currently known species grow naturally in Queensland (Qld) and New South Wales (NSW) Australia (6 spp.), New Caledonia and Vanuatu (1 sp.), and Papua New Guinea (2 spp.).[2][3][4][5][6] Some species are commonly named blushwood.

One species, Fontainea oraria, the coast fontainea, is known only from 10 living plants growing on private property near Lennox Head in northern New South Wales, Australia. Its status is critically endangered.

In 1870 in a European medical science doctoral thesis Édouard Marie Heckel first named this genus in honour of his supervisor Constant Aristide Fontaine (1818–1900), professor of chemistry and toxicology at Toulon, France.[1][7]

A compound, EBC-46, taken from the seed or other plant parts of these spp. or from Hylandia dockrillii has potential cancer-fighting properties in current research and recently published studies. The experimental drug shows promising early results in pre-clinical trials in animal models.[8][9][10]

Description

Plants in the genus, Fontainea, are shrubs or small trees. They are dioecious or rarely monoecious, and they exude a colored latex. The leaves are alternate, entire and have pinnate venation. The flowers have pedicels. The male flowers have 18 - 32 free stamens on the receptacle, while the female flowers have ovaries with 3 - 6 uni-ovulate cells and 3 - 6 short and deeply bilobed stigmas.[11]
Species

Sourced from the authoritative Australian Plant Name Index and Australian Plant Census,[2] as of October 2014, the 1985 published genus revision,[4] the 1997 new keys and spp. descriptions,[3] and the Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.[6]

Fontainea australis Jessup & Guymer, southern fontainea – Qld, NSW
Fontainea borealis P.I.Forst. – Papua New Guinea
Fontainea fugax P.I.Forst. – Burnett Distr, Qld
Fontainea oraria Jessup & Guymer, coast fontainea – Lennox Head, NSW
Fontainea pancheri (Baill.) Heckel – New Caledonia incl Loyalty Is.
Fontainea picrosperma C.T.White, fountain's blushwood; fontain's blush – Atherton Tableland, Qld
Fontainea rostrata Jessup & Guymer – Wide Bay–Burnett, Qld
Fontainea subpapuana P.I.Forst. – Papua New Guinea
Fontainea venosa Jessup & Guymer – Logan City, Qld

References

Heckel, Édouard Marie (1870). Etude au point de vue botanique et thérapeutique sur le Fontainea pancheri (nobis). Thèse Inaug. Montpellier. Vol. 9. pp. 10–. Retrieved 12 Oct 2014.
"Fontainea%". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS) database (listing by % wildcard matching of all taxa relevant to Australia). Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 12 Oct 2014.
Forster, Paul I. (1997). "Three new species of Fontainea Heckel (Euphorbiaceae) from Australia and Papua New Guinea". Austrobaileya. 5 (1): 29–37. JSTOR 41729915.
Jessup, Laurie W.; Guymer, Gordon P. (1985). "A revision of Fontainea Heckel (Euphorbiaceae – Cluytiae)". Austrobaileya. 2 (2): 112–125. JSTOR 41738658.
Forster, Paul I.; Welzen, Peter C. van (1999). "The Malesian species of Choriceras, Fontainea & Petalostigma (Euphorbiaceae)". Blumea. 44: 99–107.
Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
Archives nationales (France). Léonore database
"Frequently Asked Questions". QBiotics. 2014. Retrieved 10 Oct 2014.
"Scientists discover cancer-fighting berry on tree that only grows in Far North Queensland". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 8 Oct 2014. Retrieved 8 Oct 2014.
Boyle, G. M.; d'Souza, M. M. A.; Pierce, C. J.; Adams, R. A.; Cantor, A. S.; Johns, J. P.; Maslovskaya, L.; Gordon, V. A.; Reddell, P. W.; Parsons, P. G. (2014). "Intra-Lesional Injection of the Novel PKC Activator EBC-46 Rapidly Ablates Tumors in Mouse Models". PLOS ONE. 9 (10): e108887. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108887. PMC 4182759. PMID 25272271.
Endemia.nc: Fontainea. Faune et Flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Retrieved 25 April 2019.