地杨桃属 di yang tao shu

Authors: Bingtao Li & Hans-Joachim (Hajo) Esser

Elachocroton F. Mueller.

Herbs to subshrubs, monoecious; indumentum of multicellular, hyaline hairs, simple [or dendritic]. Leaves alternate, petiolate; stipules often present, small; leaf blade margin serrulate, rarely entire, pinnately veined. Flowers in terminal, axillary, leaf-opposed, or extra-axillary narrow racemes, female flowers often distant from male part; bracts each with 2 basal glands. Male flowers small, 1-3 per bract-axil, subsessile; sepals 3, free or very indistinctly connate at base; petals and disk absent; stamens 3; filaments free; anthers longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode absent. Female flowers: pedicel short to absent; sepals 3, free, usually larger than in male; petals and disk absent; ovary 3-locular; ovules 1 per cell; styles 3, spreading or revolute, free or connate at base. Capsules subglobose, echinate [or smooth], of 3 2-valved cocci. Seeds globose or oblong, carunculate; endosperm fleshy; cotyledon broad and flat.

About 17 species: mainly neotropical, but with outliers in Africa, Asia, and Australasia; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Microstachys chamaelea (Linnaeus) Müller Argoviensis