1. Brachychiton Schott & Endlicher, Melet. Bot. 34. 1832.
[I]
[Greek brachys, short, and chiton, tunic, evidently alluding to covering of short hairs on seeds] [Greek brachys, short, and chiton, tunic, evidently alluding to covering of short hairs on seeds]
John L. Strother
Trees [shrubs], trunks often swollen proximally, plants monoecious. Leaves: stipules caducous [persistent]; blade often lobed, base usually cuneate to truncate or cordate, margins usually entire or serrate, palmately or pinnately veined. Flowers functionally unisexual; sepals ± valvate, basally connate; nectaries 0 or 10–16; stamens (staminodes in pistillate flowers) [10–]25–30; anthers often crowded; ovary stalked, carpels 5, distinct; styles 5, connate; stigmas 5. Follicles woody, outsides glabrous, insides stellate-hairy. Seeds hairy. x = 20.
Species 31 (1 in the flora): introduced, California; Pacific Islands (Papua New Guinea), Australia.
SELECTED REFERENCE Guymer, G. P. 1988. A taxonomic revision of Brachychiton (Sterculiaceae). Austral. Syst. Bot. 1: 199–323.
