Breynia

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Starr_030612-0047_Breynia_disticha.jpg

|image_caption = Breynia disticha

|display_parents = 2

|taxon = Breynia

|authority = J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. (1776), nom. cons.

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = 93; see text

|subdivision_ref = {{cite web|url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:327612-2|title=Breynia J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. |website= Plants of the World Online|access-date = 17 March 2024}}

|synonyms =

• Aalius {{small|Rumph. ex Kuntze (1891), nom. superfl.}}
• Breyniopsis {{small|Beille (1925)}}
• Ceratogynum {{small|Wight (1852)}}
• Diplomorpha {{small|Griff. (1854), nom. illeg.}}
• Foersteria Scop. (1777)
• Forsteria Steud. (1821)
• Heterocalymnantha {{small|Domin (1927)}}
• Melanthesa Blume (1826)
• Melanthesopsis Müll.Arg. (1863)
• Sauropus {{small|Blume (1826)}}

|synonyms_ref =

}}

Breynia is a genus in the flowering plant family Phyllanthaceae, first described in 1776. It is native to Southeast Asia, China, Réunion, the Indian Subcontinent, Papuasia and Australia.

The name Breynia is a conserved name, it is recognized despite the existence of an earlier use of the same name to refer to a different plant. Breynia L. 1753 is in the Capparaceae, but it is a rejected name. We here discuss Breynia J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. 1776.Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

In a 2006 revision of the Phyllanthaceae, it was recommended that Breynia be subsumed in Phyllanthus; however, new combinations in Phyllanthus for former Breynia species remain to be published.{{cite journal | last1 = Hoffmann | first1 = Petra | last2 = Kathriarachchi | first2 = Hashendra S. | last3 = Wurdack | first3 = Kenneth J. | year = 2006 | title = A Phylogenetic Classification of Phyllanthaceae | journal = Kew Bulletin | volume = 61 | issue = 1| pages = 37–53 }}

Breynia are of special note in the fields of pollination biology and coevolution because they have a specialized mutualism with moths in the genus Epicephala (leafflower moths), in which the moths actively pollinate the flowers—thereby ensuring that the tree may produce viable seeds—but also lay eggs in the flowers' ovaries or in the space between the tepals and the carpel walls, from where their larvae consume a subset of the developing seeds as nourishment.Kawakita, A.; Kato, M. 2004. Obligate pollination mutualism in Breynia (Phyllanthaceae): further documentation of pollination mutualism involving Epicephala moths (Gracillariidae). American Journal of Botany. 91: 1319–1325.Zhang, J.; Wang, S.; Li, H.; Hu, B.; Yang, X.; Wang, Z. 2012. "Diffuse coevolution between two Epicephala species (Gracillariidae) and two Breynia species (Phyllanthaceae). PLOS ONE. 7: e41657. Other species of Epicephala are pollinators, and in some cases, non-pollinating seed predators, of certain species of plants in the genera PhyllanthusKawakita, A.; Kato, M. 2004. "Evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in New Caledonian Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae)." American Journal of Botany 91: 410–415.Kawakita, A.; Kato, M. 2009. "Repeated independent evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in the Phyllantheae-Epicephala association." Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 276: 417–426. and Glochidion,Kato, M.; Takimura, A.; Kawakita, A. (2003) "An obligate pollination mutualism and reciprocal diversification in the tree genus Glochidion (Euphorbiaceae)." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 100 (9): 5264–5267Hembry, D. H.; Okamoto, T.; Gillespie, R. G. (2012) Repeated colonization of remote islands by specialized mutualists. Biology Letters. 8: 258–261.Luo, S.-X.; Yao, G.; Wang, Z.; Zhang, D.; Hembry, D. H. (2017) "A novel, enigmatic basal leafflower moth lineage pollinating a derived leafflower host illustrates the dynamics of host shifts, partner replacement, and apparent co-adaptation in intimate mutualisms." The American Naturalist. 189: 422–435. both closely related to Breynia.Kathriarachchi, H.; Samuel, R.; Hoffmann, P.; Mlinarec, J.; Wurdack, K. J.; Ralimanana, H.; Stuessy, T. F.; Chase, M. W. 2006. "Phylogenetics of tribe Phyllantheae (Phyllanthaceae: Euphorbiaceae sensu lato) based on nrITS and plastid matK DNA sequence data." American Journal of Botany. 93: 637–655. This relationship is similar to those between figs and fig wasps and yuccas and yucca moths.