{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}} {{for|the moth genus which shares this name|Lindera (moth){{!}}''Lindera'' (moth)}} {{Redirect-synonym|Spice bush|Triunia}} {{Automatic taxobox |image = Lindera melissifolia.jpg |image_caption = ''Lindera melissifolia'' |taxon = Lindera |authority = Thunb.<ref name="POWO">{{cite web |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:331723-2 |title=''Lindera'' Thunb. |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |year=2025 |access-date=12 December 2025}}</ref> |subdivision_ranks = Species |subdivision = See text |type_species = Lindera umbellata |type_species_authority = Thunb.{{R|IPNI|FOA}} |synonyms ={{species list|header=11 synonyms|hidden=no |Aperula |Blume |Benzoe |Fabr. |Benzoin |Nees |Calosmon |J.Presl |Daphnidium |Nees |Evelyna |Raf. |Omphalodaphne |(Blume) Nakai |Ozanthes |Raf. |Parabenzoin |Nakai |Polyadenia |Nees |Sinosassafras |H.W.Li }} |synonyms_ref = {{R|POWO}} }} [[file:Lindera neesiana Dried fruit Nepal.jpg|thumb|Dried fruits of ''Lindera neesiana'' used as spice <br/>(coll.MHNT)]]
'''''Lindera''''' is a genus of about 80–100<ref name="fna">[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=118626 1. Lindera Thunberg], ''Flora of North America''</ref> species of flowering plants in the family Lauraceae, mostly native to eastern Asia but with three species in eastern North America.<ref name="fna"/><ref name="china">[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=118626 5. Lindera Thunberg], ''Flora of China''</ref> The species are shrubs and small trees;<ref name="china"/> common names include '''spicewood''', '''spicebush''', and '''Benjamin bush'''.
==Name== The Latin name ''Lindera'' commemorates the Swedish doctor Johan Linder (1676–1724).<ref name=AZPLA>{{cite book|last=Coombes|first=Allen J.|title=The A to Z of plant names|year=2012|publisher=Timber Press|location=USA|isbn=978-1-60469-196-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781604691962}}</ref>
==Description== thumb|''Lindera umbellata''
''Lindera'' are evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs.<ref name="china"/> The leaves are alternate, entire or three-lobed, and strongly spicy-aromatic. ''Lindera'' are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees. The inflorescences are composed of 3 to 15 small flowers existing as pseudo-umbels. They are sessile or on short shoots. The flowers are from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, or yellowish, with six tepals arranged in a star shape.<ref name="china"/> The male flowers have 9 to 15 fertile stamens; the innermost circle of stamens can be found at the base of the stamen glands. Usually the stamens are longer than the anthers, which in turn consist of two chambers and are directed inwards or sideways. The vestigial ovary is negligible or absent. The base of the flower is small and flat. The female flowers have a varying number of staminodes. Pollination is by bees and other insects. ''Lindera'' fruit have a hypocarpium at the base of the fruit, which in some cases forms a cup that encloses the bottom part of the fruit.<ref name="china"/> The fruit is a small red, purple or black drupe containing a single seed, dispersed mostly by birds. Many species reproduce vegetatively by stolons.
==Ecology== The genus appears to be able to occupy widely different habitats as long as its requirements for water are met.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} Habitat fragmentation severely affects dioecious{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} species like ''Lindera melissifolia'' (pondberry), because populations with plants of a single sex can only vegetatively reproduce. With significant habitat loss, plants become ever more isolated, lessening the likelihood that pollinators will travel from male to female plants.
Most are found on the bottoms and edges of shallow seasonal ponds in old dune fields, but in drier areas they occur in low riverine habitat.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} Most ''Lindera'' colonies occur in light shade beneath a forest canopy, but a few grow in almost full sunlight.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} In warmer areas they occur in bottomland hardwood forests.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}
The North American species of ''Lindera'' are relicts that originally were more common when the climate of North America was more humid, and they are not so widespread geographically as in the past.
The hermit thrush has been identified as a dispersal agent of seeds of ''L. melissifolia''.<ref name="Smith">{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Carl G. |last2=Hamel |first2=Paul B. |last3=Devall |first3=Margaret S. |last4=Schiff |first4=Nathan M. |date=March 2004 |title=Hermit Thrush is the First Observed Dispersal Agent for Pondberry (Lindera melissifolia) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2179/0008-7475(2004)069<0001:htitfo>2.0.co;2 |journal=Castanea |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.2179/0008-7475(2004)069<0001:htitfo>2.0.co;2 |s2cid=3694410 |issn=0008-7475|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
''Lindera'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the engrailed and the spicebush swallowtail.
==Species== {{As of|2025|12}}, Plants of the World Online accepts the following 94 species:{{R|POWO}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=18em| *''Lindera aggregata'' {{small|(Sims) Kosterm.}} *''Lindera akoensis'' {{small|Hayata}} *''Lindera andamanica'' {{small|Chakrab., Lakra & Diwakar}} *''Lindera angustifolia'' {{small|W.C.Cheng}} *''Lindera annamensis'' {{small|H.Liu}} *''Lindera apoensis'' {{small|Elmer}} *''Lindera assamica'' {{small|(Meisn.) Kurz}} *''Lindera balansae'' {{small|Lecomte}} *''Lindera benzoin'' {{small|(L.) Blume}} *''Lindera bibracteata'' {{small|Boerl.}} *''Lindera bokorensis'' {{small|Tagane & Yahara}} *''Lindera bootanica'' {{small|Meisn.}} *''Lindera caesia'' {{small|Reinw. ex Fern.-Vill.}} *''Lindera caudata'' {{small|(Nees) Hook.f.}} *''Lindera chienii'' {{small|W.C.Cheng}} *''Lindera chunii'' {{small|Merr.}} *''Lindera citriodora'' {{small|(Siebold & Zucc.) Hemsl.}} *''Lindera communis'' {{small|Hemsl.}} *''Lindera concinna'' {{small|Ridl.}} *''Lindera cuspidata'' {{small|(Blume) Boerl.}} *''Lindera delicata'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera densiflora'' {{small|(Meisn.) Boerl.}} *''Lindera doniana'' {{small|C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera erythrocarpa'' {{small|Makino}} *''Lindera flavinervia'' {{small|C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera floribunda'' {{small|(C.K.Allen) H.P.Tsui}} *''Lindera foveolata'' {{small|H.W.Li}} *''Lindera fragrans'' {{small|Oliv.}} *''Lindera glauca'' {{small|(Siebold & Zucc.) Blume}} *''Lindera gracilipes'' {{small|H.W.Li}} *''Lindera guangxiensis'' {{small|H.P.Tsui}} *''Lindera insignis'' {{small|(Blume) Boerl.}} *''Lindera kariensis'' {{small|W.W.Sm.}} *''Lindera kinabaluensis'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera kochummenii'' {{small|de Kok}} *''Lindera kwangtungensis'' {{small|(H.Liu) C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera latifolia'' {{small|Hook.f.}} *''Lindera laureola'' {{small|Collett & Hemsl.}} *''Lindera limprichtii'' {{small|H.J.P.Winkl.}} *''Lindera longipedunculata'' {{small|C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera longistaminata'' {{small|(H.Liu) Dao}} *''Lindera lucida'' {{small|(Blume) Boerl.}} *''Lindera lungshengensis'' {{small|S.Lee}} *''Lindera macrophylla'' {{small|(Blume) Boerl.}} *''Lindera malaccensis'' {{small|Hook.f.}} *''Lindera megaphylla'' {{small|Hemsl.}} *''Lindera meissneri'' {{small|King ex Hook.f.}} *''Lindera melastomacea'' {{small|Fern.-Vill.}} *''Lindera melissifolia'' {{small|(Walter) Blume}} *''Lindera menghaiensis'' {{small|H.W.Li}} *''Lindera metcalfiana'' {{small|C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera montana'' {{small|Ridl.}} *''Lindera montanoides'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera motuoensis'' {{small|H.P.Tsui}} *''Lindera myrrha'' {{small|(Lour.) Merr.}} *''Lindera nacusua'' {{small|(D.Don) Merr.}} *''Lindera neesiana'' {{small|(Wall. ex Nees) Kurz}} *''Lindera novoguineensis'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera obtusiloba'' {{small|Blume}} *''Lindera pedicellata'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera pentantha'' {{small|Koord. & Valeton}} *''Lindera pilosa'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera pipericarpa'' {{small|(Miq.) Boerl.}} *''Lindera polyantha'' {{small|(Blume) Boerl.}} *''Lindera praecox'' {{small|(Siebold & Zucc.) Blume}} *''Lindera prattii'' {{small|Gamble}} *''Lindera pulcherrima'' {{small|(Nees) Benth. ex Hook.f.}} *''Lindera queenslandica'' {{small|B.Hyland}} *''Lindera racemiflora'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera racemosa'' {{small|Lecomte}} *''Lindera reflexa'' {{small|Hemsl.}} *''Lindera reticulata'' {{small|(Blume) Benth. & Hook.f. ex Fern.-Vill.}} *''Lindera robusta'' {{small|(C.K.Allen) H.P.Tsui}} *''Lindera rubronervia'' {{small|Gamble}} *''Lindera rufa'' {{small|(Stapf) Gamble}} *''Lindera salicifolia'' {{small|(Blume) Boerl.}} *''Lindera sanjappae'' {{small|Bhaumik, M.K.Pathak & Chakrab.}} *''Lindera sericea'' {{small|(Siebold & Zucc.) Blume}} *''Lindera setchuenensis'' {{small|Gamble}} *''Lindera spicata'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera subcoriacea'' {{small|Wofford}} *''Lindera supracostata'' {{small|Lecomte}} *''Lindera taiwanensis'' {{small|S.S.Ying}} *''Lindera thomsonii'' {{small|C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera tienchuanensis'' {{small|W.P.Fang & H.S.Kung}} *''Lindera tonkinensis'' {{small|Lecomte}} *''Lindera triloba'' {{small|(Siebold & Zucc.) Blume}} *''Lindera turfosa'' {{small|Kosterm.}} *''Lindera umbellata'' {{small|Thunb.}} *''Lindera varmae'' {{small|M.K.Pathak, Bhaumik & Chakrab.}} *''Lindera velutina'' {{small|H.Liu}} *''Lindera villipes'' {{small|H.P.Tsui}} *''Lindera wardii'' {{small|C.K.Allen}} *''Lindera wrayi'' {{small|Gamble}} }}
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="FOA">{{cite web |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Lindera |title=''Lindera'' |last1=Le Cussan |first1=J. |last2=Hyland |first2=B.P.M. |year=2022 |website=Flora of Australia |publisher=Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra |access-date=13 December 2025}}</ref>
<ref name="IPNI">{{cite web |url=https://www.ipni.org/n/331723-2 |title=''Lindera'' Thunb., Nov. Gen. Pl. [Thunberg] 3: 64 (1783), nom. cons |website=International Plant Names Index (IPNI) |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |year=2025 |access-date=13 December 2025}}</ref> }}
{{Transient receptor potential channel modulators}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q311790}}
Category:Lindera Category:Lauraceae genera Category:Dioecious plants