Flora of Thailand
Euphorbiaceae
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Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 476. 1888 (nom. cons.); Pax & K.Hoffm. in Engl. & Harms, Natürl. Pflanzenfam. ed. 2: 19c: 228. 1931; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 3: 484. 1949; 14: 374. 1960; Hooker's Icon. Pl. 36: t. 3576. 1962; Kew Bull. Add. Ser. 4: 61. 1975; Kew Bull. 36: 267. 1981; G.L.Webster, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 81: 77. 1994; Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Euphorbiacearum: 174. 2001; Chayam. in Chayam. & Welzen, Fl. Thailand 8, 1: 132. 2005; G.L.Webster in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 11: 126. 2014.
Trees; dioecious. Indumentum simple, short hairs. Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, crowded at the apex of the stem, leaving long bare internodes, simple; petiole distinctly pulvinate at both ends; blade without glands. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, paniculate and many-flowered when staminate, racemose and few-flowered when pistillate. Flowers sessile or subsessile; petals absent. Staminate flowers: calyx irregularly opening into 2 segments; disc glands many, minute, surrounding stamens; stamens 50–60, filaments short, stout, connective umbrella-shaped with 4-celled thecae hanging from it; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers: sepals 3 or 4, small; disc large, more or less 6–8-lobed, pulviniform; ovary 3- or 4-locular; ovules 1 per locule; style short, stigmas stigmatiform, not splitting. Fruits large woody capsules, tardily loculicidally dehiscent, keeled on sutures. Seeds without caruncle.
Monotypic, found from Myanmar, Thailand to Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. Classification: Subfam. Acalyphoideae, tribe Picnocomeae, subtribe Blumeodendrinae.
Botryophora geniculata (Miq.) Beumée ex Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 3: 484. 1949; 14: 375. 1960; Chayam. in Chayam. & Welzen, Fl. Thailand 8, 1: 132. 2005; Fl. Thailand 8, 2: 613, Fig. 4. 2007.— Sterculia geniculata Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat. Suppl., 164: 400. 1860.— Botryophora kingii Hook.f., Fl. Br. Ind. 5: 427. 1887.
Trees to 18 m high; branchlets woody; bark reddish brown, glabrous. Leaves: petioles 3–14 cm long, slender, stronly pulvinate; blade lanceolate oblong, elliptic oblong, or oblong, 13–35 by 3.5–10 cm, papery to subcoriaceous, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire or undulate, apex acuminate with narrow tip of c. 1.5 cm, drying pale yellowish brown; nerves 9–17 pairs, joining at the margin, raised below, veins scalariform, veinlets reticulate, prominent below. Staminate inflorescences c. 25 cm long, pendulous. Staminate flowers: sepals purplish-red, anthers bright yellow in a globose mass, connective peltate. Pistillate inflorescences up to 7 cm long, among leaves and on trunk. Fruits packed tightly in a dense mass to 13 cm long, c. 3 by 2.5 cm, crimson, ripening dark brown, style 1.5 cm long.
T h a i l a n d.— PENINSULAR: Phuket (Tapli).
D i s t r i b u t i o n.— Lower Burma, Malay Peninsular, West Java (type).
E c o l o g y.— In primary lowland forest, on blackish soil or sandy loam or lime. Altitude: up to c. 200 m.