绿玉树 lü yu shu

Trees or shrubs, 2-6 m tall, dioecious, eventually forming trunk, 10-25 cm d.b.h.; bark rugose, gray or light. Stems green, succulent, very finely longitudinally striate. Leaves alternate, present only on new growth; stipules very small, caducous; petiole ± absent; leaf blade oblong-linear, 7-15 × 0.7-1.5 mm, base attenuate, margin entire, apex obtuse. Cyathia clustered at apex of branches, pedunculate, unisexual; involucral leaves minute, membranous, caducous; involucre turbinate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, shortly pubescent inside; glands 5, peltate-ovate or subrounded. Male flowers many, exserted from involucre. Female flower: ovary glabrous, exserted from involucre; styles connate below middle; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule 3-lobed, ca. 8 × 8 mm, smooth, sparsely pilose or glabrous. Seeds ovoid-globose, ca. 4 × 4 mm, smooth; caruncle small. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

Cultivated and escaped. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; also widely cultivated in greenhouses of C and N China [native to Africa (Angola); widely cultivated in tropical Asia].