Phoebe is a genus of evergreen trees and shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. There are approximately 100 species in the genus, distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and neotropical America. 35 species occur in China. The first description of the genus was of the type species P. lanceolata made ​​in 1836 by Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in Systema Laurinarum, p. 98.