银叶巴豆 yin ye ba dou

Croton punctatus Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 2: 581. 1790, not Jacquin (1787); C. cascarilloides f. pilosus Y. T. Chang; C. cochinchinensis Smith; C. cumingii Müller Argoviensis; C. pierrei Gagnepain.

Shrubs 1-2 m tall; indumentum of appressed, rounded, subhyaline, and membranous peltate scales; branches with stouter wrinkles. Leaves usually densely clustered at apex of branchlets; stipules subulate, caducous; petiole 1.5-3 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 8-14(-23) × 2-5(-10) cm, thinly papery, glaucous-gray or brownish scale-glands persistent abaxially, adaxial scales deciduous, base attenuate, obtuse, or slightly cordate, with 2 discoid glands, apex acuminate, acute, rotund, or retuse; venation pinnate, lateral veins 8-12, arcuately ascending, anastomosing before margins. Inflorescence terminal, 1-4 cm, spikelike; bracts caducous. Male flowers: sepals ovate, white ciliate; petals obovate, ca. 2 mm, white-ciliate; stamens 15-20; filaments white pubescent. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male; ovary and styles with dense scales; styles 4-8-fid, lobes filamentous. Capsules subglobose, ca. 7 mm in diam. Seeds ellipsoidal, ca. 4 mm. Fl. and fr. almost throughout year.

Seashores, stream bank thickets, sparse forests; below 500 m. Fujian (Xiamen), Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].