It's not an element, it's a component. That may sound pedantic but the distinction is important. React components aren't a "virtual DOM", they are a "componen

It's not an element, it's a component. That may sound pedantic but the distinction is important. React components aren't a "virtual DOM", they are a "component tree" that gets synced to the DOM. A component may or may not correspond to one or more elements in the DOM and it may wrap other components. Thinking of "rendering" a component as "syncing the DOM" seems to be a common misunderstanding, especially when it comes to performance concerns (because manipulating the DOM unnecessarily is bad).