Tall evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, entire or denticulate along margins,
mostly unequal-sided at base, glabrous or sometimes pubescent, penninerved with slender
lateral nerves and usually with prominent, finely reticulate ultimate venation, short-petioled;
stipules small, caducous. Inflorescences axillary or cauliflorous, fascicled, the flowers sometimes
subsessile. Male flowers: sepals (2 or 3) 4 or 5, free, imbricate; petals absent; stamens 3 - 50,
free; anthers 2-loculed, basifixed, extrorse or introrse; disc central, pubescent or glabrous,
disciform, flat or with variously raised or crenate or lobulate margins, the lobes rarely produced
outward embracing the bases of filaments. Female flowers: sepals 4 or 5 (- 6), same as in male but
usually larger; petals absent; disc annular or occasionally shortly cupular; ovary 1 or 2 (- 3)-
locular; ovules anatropous, 2 in each locule; styles obsolete or occasionally 1 - 3 mm long;
stigmas mostly flabellate or sometimes circular or reniform. Fruits drupaceous, indehiscent,
occasionally somewhat flattened; exocarp mostly fleshy and thick or sometimes thin; endocarp
crustaceous or bony, sometimes sculptured; seeds solitary in each locule, ecarunculate; testa
smooth; endosperm fleshy; embryo straight; cotyledons broad.
Mostly in Old World tropics, also in New World tropics, subtropical East Asia and South
Africa, about 200 species; 20 species in India.
Literature.
CHAKRABARTY, T., M. GANGOPADHYAY & N. P. BALAKRISHNAN (1997).
The genus Drypetes (Euphorbiaceae) in the Indian subcontinent. J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 21(2): 251 - 280, ff.
1 - 8.
Notes.
The chromosome number reported so far is only in four African species, with the
diploid number as 2n = 40 (Hans, Taxon 22: 591 - 636. 1973). Pollination is anemophilous or
entomophilous. Pollen grains are prolate, tricolporate, tectate and with large endocolpus (Punt,
Wentia 7: 1 - 116. 1962).
Almost all species yield timber of good quality and used for construction of houses or
making furniture, agricultural implements or various other wooden materials.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
| 2 a. Ovary and fruits 1-locular (unknown in D. porteri); leaves usually smaller (up to 16 cm long)
|
3
|
| b. Ovary and fruits 2-locular; leaves various, often larger
|
10
|
| 3 a. Leaves stiffly coriaceous, broadly rounded or obtuse or retuse at apex; minor nerves bullately
impressed; fruits globose or fusiform, 6 - 8 mm in diam., fleshy
|
16.
Drypetes sepiaria
|
| b. Leaves chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, acuminate or at least narrowing towards apex; minor
nerves not bullately impressed; fruits not as above
|
4
|
| 4 a. Leaves crenulate-serrulate or denticulate along margins
|
5
|
| b. Leaves entire along margins
|
7
|
| 5 a. Endocarp of fruits sculptured with strong spiniform outgrowths
|
18.
Drypetes sumatrana
|
| b. Endocarp of fruits not sculptured
|
6
|
| 7 a. Minor nerves of leaves finely reticulate, forming polygonal areoles, never branching into veins
of higher order
|
8
|
| b. Minor nerves of leaves not so finely reticulate, forming more or less squarish or rectangular
areoles, often branching into veins of higher order
|
9
|
| 8 a. Leaves 11 - 16.5 cm long, glossy; petioles 3 - 6 mm long, pulvinate at apex, mostly geniculate
|
6.
Drypetes ellisii
|
| b. Leaves 5 - 9 cm long, not glossy; petioles 9 - 11 mm long, pulvinate at apex, mostly geniculate
|
15.
Drypetes porteri
|
| 9 a. Lateral nerves of leaves 6 - 9 pairs; male disc entire; female pedicels 4 - 5 mm long; fruiting
pedicels 10 - 12 mm long; fruits mostly ovoid to ellipsoid, 1.7 - 2 cm long
|
20.
Drypetes wightii
|
| b. Lateral nerves of leaves 7 - 16 pairs; male disc lobulate; female pedicels 8 - 15 mm long; fruiting
pedicels 20 - 26 mm long; fruits obovoid, 2 - 2.5 cm long
|
19.
Drypetes venusta
|
| 10a. Inflorescences (at least partly) cauliflorous, on old wood
|
11
|
| b. Inflorescences strictly axillary, on main leafy sho
|
14
|
| b. Midrib on upper surface of leaves flat
|
12
|
| 12a. Branchlets and leaves pubescent; leaves entire; fruits small (2 - 2.5 cm in diam.), on 10 - 12 mm
long pedicels
|
12.
Drypetes malabarica
|
| b. Branchlets and leaves glabrous or glabrescent; leaves obscurely to prominently denticulate or
serrulate along margins; fruits large (2.5 - 5 cm in diam.), sessile to subsessile
|
13
|
| 13a. Glomerules of flowers coralliform; stamens 15 - 20; male disc shortly cupular and ribbed, with
thin raised margins
|
4.
Drypetes confertiflora
|
| b. Glomerules of flowers not coralliform; stamens 30 - 40; male disc disciform, not ribbed
|
14.
Drypetes oblongifolia
|
| 14a. Leaves serrulate or denticulate along margins
|
15
|
| b. Leaves entire along margins
|
16
|
| 15a. Leaves 13 - 15 x 4 - 5 cm, chartaceous; midrib flat above; fruits ovoid-ellipsoid, thin-walled
|
9.
Drypetes jaintensis
|
| b. Leaves (10-) 15 - 35 x 4.5 - 8 cm, coriaceous; midrib often slightly incised above; fruits oblong-
ellipsoid to globose or transverse, thick-walled
|
17.
Drypetes subsessilis
|
| 16a. Female and fruiting pedicels (fruits unknown in D. eglandulosa) longer, 5 - 15 mm long
|
17
|
| b. Female (unknown in D. leiocarpa) and fruiting pedicels shorter, 0.5 - 5 mm long
|
19
|
| 17a. Leaves larger, 7 - 28 cm long, glossy; female and fruiting pedicels 5 - 10 mm long; fruits sub-
cubical
|
3.
Drypetes bhattacharyae
|
| b. Leaves smaller, 5 - 10 cm long, not glossy; female and fruiting pedicels 10 - 15 mm long; fruits
not sub-cubical
|
18
|
| 18a. Leaves brownish when dry; nerves and nervules prominent on the upper surface; fruits unknown
(N E. India to Myanmar)
|
5.
Drypetes eglandulosa
|
| b. Leaves blackish when dry; nerves and nervules obscure or faint on the upper surface; fruits
globose, 1.6 - 2 cm in diam., thick-walled (Nicobar Islands)
|
13.
Drypetes microphylla
|
| b. Fruits pubescent, of various shapes
|
20
|
| 20a. Leaves often obscurely serrulate; midrib often slightly incised on the upper surface; male
flowers 4 - 5 mm in diam.; stamens 3 - 4; female pedicels 0 - 2.5 (-5) mm long; fruits oblong-
ellipsoid to globose or occasionally transverse
|
17.
Drypetes subsessilis
|
| b. Leaves always entire; midrib flat on the upper surface; male flowers ca 10 mm in diam.;
stamens (6-) 8 - 15; female and fruiting pedicels 2 - 4 (-5) mm long; fruits subcubical or often
transverse
|
2.
Drypetes assamica
|
