Hydrochoreacorymbosa (Rich.) Barneby & J.W. Grimes.

Shrubs and trees, unarmed; branches grey to brown pilosulous to glabrescent, cylindrical; stipules persistent or caducous. Leaves bipinnate, with 1–15 pairs of pinnae; petiole canaliculate or cylindrical, grey to brown pilosulous or glabrous; nectaries sessile to stipitate, orbicular, patelliform, or cupuliform, the first either near mid-petiole or between the first pinnae pair, and often along the leaf rachis, between the leaflet pairs; leaflets 2–33 pairs per pinna, petiolate to subsessile, rhombic-ovate, rhombic-lanceolate, rhombic-oblong, rhombic-obovate, ovate, elliptic, oblong, lanceolate or oblanceolate, grey to brown pilosulous, ciliate or glabrous, concolorous or more often discolorous, venation pinnate. Inflorescence consisting of umbelliform capitula or corymbiform racemes, arising singly or fasciculate from the axils of coeval or hysteranthous leaves, bracts generally caducous; bracteoles persistent or caducous. Flowers heteromorphic, pedicellate in peripheral flowers, mostly pentamerous, and sessile in the larger terminal flower, 5–8-merous; calyx green, gamosepalous, campanulate, or tubular, pubescent, ciliate or glabrous; corolla pinkish to reddish, yellowish or whitish, gamopetalous, infundibuliform, campanulate, or tubular, glabrous, puberulent, ciliate or pilose at the apex; androecium with (10–)12–60(–75) stamens; filaments white, greenish or roseate, fused into a tube, included in peripheral flowers or exserted beyond the corolla in the terminal flower; stemonozone present, anthers dorsifixed; ovary superior, sessile, truncate at the apex, usually pubescent or sometimes glabrous. Fruits sessile or shortly stipitate, straight or slightly recurved, either lomentiform, the seeds released in one-seeded articles, or woody and indehiscent, the exocarp with transverse fibres and the endocarp hard and septate, or follicular, with similar exocarp but the septate endocarp papyraceous and shed along with the seeds, or crypto-lomentiform with follicular dehiscence, the exocarp smooth and the endocarp remaining attached to the seeds forming 1-seeded articles. Seeds with a hard testa, with pleurogram complete or narrowly U-shaped.

North America (Mexico), Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua), South America (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela) and Africa (Congo Basin and West Africa) (Fig. 2A). Hydrochorea species occur in riparian habitats, inundated and non-inundated wet tropical forests of the Orinoco and Amazon basins, pre-Andean Amazonia along the Nor-Yungas and Pando in Bolivia, Vaupés in Colombia and Huánuco in Peru, Central Brazilian Savanna, the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil and extending to northern South America in Venezuela and the Guianas and the Gulf-Caribbean lowlands until Mexico, and one species in coastal tidal swamp forests in Upper Guinea (West Africa) and one species in riparian and seasonally inundated forests in the Congo Basin.

Since the names Hydrochorea and Balizia were published in the same publication (Barneby and Grimes 1996), neither has priority, although Hydrochorea was treated as genus 1 and Balizia as genus 2, Hydrochorea thus appearing first in the publication. The name Hydrochorea is here chosen to represent the recircumscribed genus, especially since the name is appropriate for most of its species, and most Balizia species are also thought to frequently use water-borne seed dispersal, and all but one species (B.elegans) are reported to often occur along river-banks. The name Balizia, being an anagram of Albizia, is less appropriate given that several of its species have previously been placed in Albizia and therefore the name may suggest close kinship, while actually being most closely related to the genus Jupunba.