Descripcion

Shrubs or small trees to 10 m, non-succulent, much branched, glabrous, with copious white latex; branches alternate, terete, with irregularly distributed light-brown lenticels. Stipules membra nous, ovate-triangular, long acuminate, ca. 2 mm long, glandular ciliate at the margin. Leaves alternate; petiole 1-3.4 cm long, usu ally reddish; foliar glands (l-)2(-3) subopposite at the base of the blade on its adaxial side, cyathiform or seldom tubular, 0.4-0.5 mm in diam, reddish-brown to dark brown; blade membranous, nar rowly elliptic or lanceolate (seldom elliptic in young leaves), slight ly lighter on the adaxial side, 5-14.4 cm long, 1.2^1 cm wide, base attenuate; apex acuminate; midrib prominent on the abaxial side; secondary veins 10-36 pairs; margin serrulate; teeth often in curved, glandular, apex obtuse, early deciduous by an abscission zone. Thyrses spiciform, terminal, 7.9-10.5 cm long, bearing alter nate cymules (dichasia) along the rachis; peduncle 1.3-1.9 cm at anthesis elongating to 4.2 cm in fruit; rachis 6.1-8.7 cm long, dif ferentiated into a proximal portion 1.3-3 cm long bearing (l-)3-6 carpellate cymules, elongating to 6 cm, and a yellowish distal por tion 4.7-6.1 cm long, bearing many staminate cymules, crowded towards the distal end of the rachis. Bracts transversely ovate rhombic, 1.5-3 mm long, 1.7-2.5 mm wide, acuminate, with two marginal glands, simple, subpeltate, fleshy, disc-like or sometimes elongated, usually appressed against the rachis, 1.5-2 mm in diam in the staminate cymules, 2-2.5 mm in diam in the carpellate ones. Staminate cymules with 7-15 flowers; bracteoles filiform, apex acute, 0.5 mm long. Staminate flowers articulate on persistent and accrescent pedicels, elongating to 1.3 mm; calyx 2-lobed, obovate, finely membranous, 1-1.5 mm long, margin incurved, erose to finely serrate, stamens 2, bithecal, exserted; filaments coalescent at base, 2 mm long, 0.3-0.4 mm wide; thecae adnate, extrorse, ovoid to subglobose, 0.4-0.7 mm long, 0.4-0.5 mm wide, longitudinally dehiscent. Pollen subprolate (polar axis = 49 jjim, equatorial axis = 41 |jim), 3-colporate, exine tectate, micropunctate, columellae distally branched. Carpellate cymules reduced to the first terminal flower with several remnant bracteoles, similar to those of the sta minate cymules, concealed by the cymule bract. Carpellate flowers sessile; sepals 3, free, triangular, 1.5 mm long, margin erose or finely serrate, persistent; ovary superior, 3-locular, trigonous subglobose, ca. 2 mm in diam, 1 anatropous ovule per locule; style short, persistent; stigmas 3, straight to recurved, to 5 mm long. Fruit 3-lobed, subglobose, 0.9-1 cm in diam, splitting into 3 mer icarps; carpidiophore persistent with a 3-lobed, triangular woody base and a central column with 3 wing-like angles, lobes 0.4-0.5 cm long; mericarps 1-seeded, ventrally and dorsally dehiscent into 2 valves. Seeds e