鼎湖巴豆 ding hu ba dou

Treelets 5-8 m tall; young branches sparsely white stellate-hairy. Stipules subulate, 3-5 mm, stellate-hairy; petiole 2-5 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, 9-15 × 3-6 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, dark brown when dry, base broadly cuneate, margins subentire or shallowly undulate, base of midvein/midrib with sessile disciform glands, apex acuminate or long acuminate; venation pinnate, lateral veins 5 or 6. Inflorescence terminal, 5 cm or more, glabrous; bracts lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, bracts with 1 female flower or 1 female and 1 male. Male flowers: pedicels ca. 2 mm; sepals oblong, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous; petals oblong, ca. 1.3 mm, apex woolly, margins pubescent; stamens 10; filaments glabrous. Female flowers: pedicels 2-3 mm; sepals 5, lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm, glabrous; petals absent; disk annular; ovary densely white stellate-hairy; styles 3, ca. 3 mm, bipartite, lobes linear. Capsules subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam., brownish when dry, sparsely stellate-pubescent; sepals persistent, 3-6 mm. Seeds subellipsoid, ca. 6 mm, yellow- brown, with white spot-stripes. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

● Open or dense forests in limestone regions; below 100-250 m. Guangdong (Guangzhou, Panyu, Zhaoqing).