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]
1234"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.[dead link]
