Besleria

Besleria
Besleria comosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Gesneriaceae
Genus:	Besleria Plum. ex L.
Type species
Besleria lutea L.
Species[1]
176; see text
Synonyms[1]
Eriphia P.Browne (1756) Cyrtanthemum Oerst. (1861) Gasteranthopsis Oerst.(1861) Parabesleria Oerst. (1858) Pseudobesleria Oerst. (1858) Pterobesleria C.V.Morton (1953)

Besleria is a genus of large herbs and soft-stemmed subshrubs or shrubs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. It includes 176 species native to tropical southern Mexico, Central America, South America, and the West Indies.

The closely related genus Gasteranthus was previously included in Besleria. The two genera have been separated on the basis of stomatal (aggregated in Gasteranthus, scattered in Besleria) and fruit (fleshy capsule in Gasteranthus, berry in Besleria) characters.^[2]