海南白桐树 hai nan bai tong shu

Mercurialis indica Loureiro (1790), not Claoxylon indicum (Reinwardt ex Blume) Hasskarl (1844).

Shrubs, 1-5 m tall, dioecious. Branchlets pilose. Stipules subulate, 4-5 mm; petiole 1.5-5 cm, apex with 2 glands; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 9-16 × 1.5-5 cm, membranous, base cuneate, glandular-crenulate, apex acuminate, glabrous. Male inflorescences 11-13 cm; bracts ovate-triangular, 1-1.5 mm. Male flowers 2 or 3 per bract; pedicel 3-4 mm; sepals 3, ca. 2 mm; stamens 40-50; interstaminal glands ca. 0.5 mm. Female inflorescences 4-5 cm; bracts triangular, ca. 1 mm. Female flowers 1 per bract; pedicel ca. 3 mm; sepals 3, subtriangular, ca. 1 mm; disk glands 3, ovate; ovary subglobose, glabrous; styles 3, ca. 1.5 mm, basally connate, plumose. Capsule 3-lobed, ca. 9 mm in diam. Seeds subglobose, ca. 4.5 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. Feb-Nov.

Plains, mountain slopes, thickets, monsoon forests; below 100-700 m. Guangdong (Xuwen), S Guangxi, Hainan [N Vietnam].