Prockia

{{Short description|Genus of plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Florae Columbiae (Plate CXL) (8205969464).jpg

| display_parents = 2

| taxon = Prockia

| authority = P.Browne ex L.

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = 7; see text

| synonyms = *Kellettia Seem.

• Tinea Spreng.
• Trilix L.

| type_species = Prockia crucis{{Cite web |title=Tropicos |url=https://www.tropicos.org/name/40016299 |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=www.tropicos.org}}

| type_species_authority = P.Browne ex L.

}}

Prockia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Salicaceae. It consists of approximately six species of shrubs and small trees native to the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Its type species, Prockia crucis, is highly polymorphic and has a broad distribution, from Mexico and the West Indies to Uruguay and northern Argentina.

The genus name of Prockia is in honour of Christian Leberecht von Prøck (1718–1780), a Danish baron. He served as Governor-General of the Danish West Indies colonies from 1756 to 1766.{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition |trans-title=Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2018 | isbn=978-3-946292-26-5 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2018 |format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2018 |access-date=1 January 2021}} It was first described and published in Syst. Nat. edition.10, Vol.2 on page 1074 in 1759.{{cite web |title=Prockia P.Browne ex L. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30024531-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=22 November 2021 |language=en}}

Historically, Prockia was characterized by having pseudo-axile placentation (i.e., parietal placentae that intrude into the center of the ovary and eventually fuse, appearing axile) and 3-merous flowers and lacking nectaries.Sleumer, H.O. 1980. Flacourtiaceae. Flora Neotropica 22: 1-499. However, discoveries of new species have confounded a simple morphological diagnosis of the genus, as P. pentamera has 5-merous flowers, and P. oaxacana and P. krusei are polygamodioecious or androdioecious and have more typical parietal placentation.{{cite journal |last1=Jiménez Ramírez |first1=Jaime |last2=Cruz Durán |first2=Ramiro |last3=Vega Flores |first3=Karla |title=Prockia oaxacana (Salicaceae), una especie nueva del Estado de Oaxaca, México |journal=Novon |date=2008 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=351–356 |doi=10.3417/2005037}} Formerly placed in the heterogeneous family Flacourtiaceae,Lemke, D.E. 1988. A synopsis of Flacourtiaceae. Aliso 12: 29-43. Prockia is now classified in tribe Prockieae of Salicaceae, along with close relatives Banara, Hasseltiopsis, Pineda, and Neosprucea.Alford, M.H. 2008. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25027975?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Revision of Neosprucea (Salicaceae).] Systematic Botany Monographs 85: 1-62.

Prockia crucis is sometimes confused with Pineda ovata (Salicaceae) in the high elevations of Bolivia.Alford, M.H. 2006. A taxonomic revision of the Andean genus Pineda (Salicaceae). Kew Bulletin 61: 205-214.