11. Agrostistachys Dalzell

Shrubs or trees, dioecious, evergreen. Leaves shortly petioled or subsessile, pinnately nerved. Flowers: in axillary or supra-axillary bracteate racemose spikes; bracts concave. Male flowers: small, few or many within each bract, sessile or shortly pedicelled; calyx globose; petals 5, rarely 6 - 8, shorter than calyx lobes or equal; disc 5-glandular, episepalous; stamens 8 - 13, on a convex receptacle, biseriate, rarely fewer, outer ones epipetalous; connective subulate at apex; anthers versatile; anther-thecae pendulous from the glanduliferous thick connective, free below, longitudinally dehiscing; pistillode usually large or absent. Female flowers: solitary in each bract, on long pedicels; calyx 5- or rarely 4-fid; lobes lanceolate; petals longer than calyx-lobes, caducous; disc of 5 glands, thick; staminodes absent; ovary 3-loculed; styles bifid, spreading; ovule one in each locule. Fruits consisting of three 2-valved dehiscent cocci, crustaceous or subfleshy; seeds subglobose; testa shiny, ecarunculate; endosperm fleshy; cotyledons broad, laterally flat.

India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, through Malesia to New Guinea, ca 10 species; 2 species in India.

Literature. BALAKRISHNAN, N. P. (1970). Studies in Indian Euphorbiaceae - IV. The genus Agrostistachys Dalz. in India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 67: 299 - 306, ff. 1 - 2. SEVILLA, S. & P. C. van WELZEN (2001). Revision and phylogeny of Agrostistachys and Chondrostylis (Euphorbiaceae). Blumea 46: 71 - 97.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1 a. Stipules ca 10 mm long; spikes short, 7 - 15 mm long; bracts closely imbricate; male bracts 1- flowered

1. Agrostistachys indica

b. Stipules ca 2 mm long; spikes elongate, 8 - 14 cm long; bracts distantly placed; male bracts many-flowered

2. Agrostistachys meeboldii

List of Lower Taxa