山乌桕 shan wu jiu

Excoecaria discolor (Champion ex Bentham) Müller Argoviensis; E. loureiroana Müller Argoviensis; Sapium cochinchinense (Loureiro) Pax & K. Hoffmann (1912), not (Loureiro) Kuntze (1898); S. discolor (Champion ex Bentham) Müller Argoviensis; S. laui Croizat; Shirakia cochinchinensis (Loureiro) Hurusawa; Stillingia discolor Champion ex Bentham.

Trees to 12(-20) m tall, glabrous; branchlets gray-brown, lenticellate. Leaves alternate; stipules small, subovate, ca. 1 mm; petioles 2-7.5 cm, 2-glandular at apex; leaf blade elliptic or oblong-ovate, 4-10 × 2.5-5 cm, papery, reddish when young, base cuneate, apex obtuse or shortly acuminate, with several rounded glands on or near margin abaxially; midvein elevated on both surfaces, lateral veins 8-12 pairs, alternate or nearly opposite. Flowers monoecious in terminal racemes; inflorescences 4-9 cm, female in lower part, male in upper part or throughout. Male flowers: pedicels 1-3 mm; bracts ovate, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm, glands oblong or reniform, ca. 2 × 1 mm at bilateral base, each bract 5-7-flowered; bractlets 1-1.2 mm; calyx cup-shaped, irregularly serrulate; stamens 2 or 3; filaments short; anthers globose. Female flowers: pedicels stout, terete, ca. 5 mm; bracts almost as in male, each bract only 1-flowered; calyx 3-partite to base, lobes triangular, 1.8-2 × ca. 1.2 mm, margins sparsely serrulate; ovary ovoid, 3-celled; styles 3, revolute. Capsules black, globose, 7-9 mm in diam.; columella persistent. Seeds subglobose, 4-5 × 3-4 mm in diam., with thinly waxy aril. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

Moist broad-leaved evergreen forests, subtropical forests, montane forests or brushwood; 100-1100 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].

Sapium cochinchinense (Loureiro) Kuntze is based on Excoecaria cochinchinensis Loureiro, whereas S. cochinchinense (Loureiro) Pax & K. Hoffmann is an illegitimate later homonym based on Triadica cochinchinensis.

The timber of Triadica cochinchinensis is used for matchsticks and tea boxes. The roots and leaves are used as medicine for traumatic injury and to detoxify snakebites. The seed oil is used to make soap.