Hevea is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, with about ten members.

French botanist and explorer Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet first described Hevea as a genus in 1775.

To the north of the basin, the land rises to the watershed of the Guiana Shield on the border between Brazil and Venezuela, and the southern foothills of these mountains form the northerly limit of the genus.

In this area where there are variations in soil and topography and the rainforest experiences conditions of all-year-round humidity, the genus Hevea has been undergoing a high degree of speciation.

Other species such as H. benthamiana, H. microphylla and H. spruceana need wetter conditions in locations subject to seasonal flooding for several months each year, and H. nitida grows both in periodically inundated swamps and in drier locations such as rocky hillsides well above the flood level.