18. Codiaeum A.H.L. Juss., Euph. Gen. Tent. 33, t. 9, f. 30. 1824. Muell. Arg. in DC., Prodr. 15(2): 1116. 1866; Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 3(1): 299. 1880; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 399. 1887; Pax in Engl., Pflanzenreich 4. 147. 3: 23. 1911; Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. P1. W. Pak. & Kashm. 446. 1972.
[Rumph.]
A. RADCLIFFE-SMITH
Monoecious or occasionally dioecious shrubs or small trees. Indumentum (when present) simple. Leaves alternate, petiolate, minutely stipulate or not, simple, enitre or trilobate, the lamina sometimes recurved, twisted or interrupted, penninerved, usually eglandular. Inflorescences axillary or subterminal, sometimes subtended by a small, orbicular leaf, laxly racemose, usually unisexual and shortly pedunculate; ♂ bracts 1-6-flowered; ♀ bracts 1-flowered. Male flowers: pedicels slender, articulate; sepals 3-6, free, imbricate; petals 3-6, minute or 0; disc glands 5-15, small, free; stamens 15-100, the filaments free, anthers erect, extrorse, dorsifixed, connective broad, cells apically confluent, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode 0. Female flowers: pedicels shorter and stouter than in the ♂, not articulate; sepals smaller than in the ♂; petals 0; disc shallowly cupular, ± entire; ovary 3-celled, with 1 ovule per cell; styles 3, shortly connate at the base, spreading or recurved, simple, rarely bipartite. Fruit septicidally dehiscent into 3 bivalved cocci. Seeds smooth, shiny, marbled, carunculate; testa crustaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat.
A small Malesian genus of 15 species extending to the SW. Pacific & N. Australia. One species widely cultivated in the tropics and subtropics, and often naturalized.
