Simaba

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Simaba guianensis 286723399.jpg

| image_caption = Simaba guianensis

| taxon = Simaba

| authority = Aubl.

| synonyms =

• Aruba {{au|Aubl. in Hist. Pl. Guiane 1: 293 (1775)}}
• Phyllostema {{au|Neck. in Elem. Bot. 2: 301 (1790), opus utique oppr.}}
• Zwingera {{au|Schreb. in Gen. Pl., ed. 8[a].: 802 (1791), nom. illeg.}}

| synonyms_ref = {{cite POWO |id=38248-1 |title=Simaba |access-date=12 November 2023}}

}}

Simaba is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Simaroubaceae.

Its native range stretches from southern tropical America and Trinidad, across to western tropical Africa to Angola then across to western Malesia.

It was first published by French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet (1720–1778), in Hist. Pl. Guiane on page 409 in 1775.

Hans Peter Nooteboom (1934–2022) in 1962 (published in 1963), took a very broad view of the genus Quassia {{au|L.}} and included therein various genera including, Hannoa {{au|Planch.}}, Odyendyea {{au|(Pierre) Engl.}}, Pierreodendron {{au|Engl.}}, Samadera {{au|Gaertn.}}, Simaba {{au|Aubl.}} and Simarouba {{au|Aubl.}}{{cite journal |last1=Noteboom |first1=Hans Peter |title=Generic delimitation in Simaroubaceae tribus Simaroubeae and a conspectus of the genus Quassia L. |journal=Blumea |date=1962 |volume=XI |issue=2 |pages=509–28 |url=https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/524782/BLUM1962011002007.pdf |access-date=4 February 2021}} In 2007, molecular analyses of the Simaroubaceae family (Clayton et al., 2007), suggested the splitting up of genera Quassia again, with all Nooteboom's synonyms listed above being resurrected as independent genera.{{cite journal |last1=Clayton |first1=J.W. |last2=Fernando |first2=E.S. |last3=Soltis |first3=P.S. |last4=Soltis |first4=D.E. |title=Molecular phylogeny of the Tree-of-Heaven family (Simaroubaceae) based on chloroplast and nuclear markers |journal=Int. J. Plant Sci. |date=2007 |volume=168 |issue=9 |pages=1325–1339|doi=10.1086/521796 }}