A family of subtropical to tropical flowering plants, found in New Guinea, Australia, New Caledonia, Madagascar, continental Africa, and tropical America
“four seeds,” from the Greek tetra, “four,” and kokkos, “a kernel, grain, or berry,” (from Edmund Jaeger’s A Source-Book of Biological names and Terms) because of the four-lobed or four-seeded ovary in the original species, T. dioicus. My original information followed Philip Munz, who used the word kakkos for “fruit,” but I have been kindly informed by Dr. Stavros Kakkos of my mistake, and in checking other sources find the proper word source to have been kokkos. Thank you, Dr. Kakkos.
Species
hallii
After Elihu Hall (1822-1882), “a farmer with a great interest in botany, collected 300 of the original specimens and had a personal collection of 10,000 specimens”