40. Hevea Aubl.

Trees with milky latex. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, palmately 3-foliolate, glabrous; leaflets stalked, entire; stipules caducous. Inflorescences in axils of leaves, paniculate cymes, the central flower of each cyme female, the others male; calyx 5-dentate or 5-lobed; petals absent. Male flowers: disc small, 5-lobed, hairy; receptacle columnar; filaments adnate to the column; anthers 5, in one series or 10 in 2 superposed series; pistillode terminal on the column, ovoid-subulate, rather large. Female flowers: ovary sessile, ovoid, 3-loculed, each locule 1- ovuled; stigmas 3, sessile, broad, 2-lobed. Capsules schizocarpic, 3-lobed; seeds ellipsoid, large.

Tropical America, ca 19 species; one in India.

List of Lower Taxa