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Botanical descriptions Habitat and ecology Distribution
Diagnostic characters : | Evergreen trees with reddish sap. Young twigs and all parts covered with very densely wooly stellate hairs. Leaves broadly ovate, base peltate with extra-floral nectaries on lamina near insertion. Flowers unisexual on different trees, female inflorescence long pendulous. Fruit a lobed capsule covered with spines bearing dense wooly stellate hairs. Seeds ovoid black. |
Habit : | Evergreen shrub or small tree from 8 m height, compact crown. Branches ascending with indumentum densely stellately hairy on the whole part of the plant. |
Trunk & bark : | Bark smooth, grey-blackish, wood white. |
Branches and branchlets or twigs : | Twigs terete densely coated with yellowish wooly stellate hairs particularly young shoots. |
Exudates : | Reddish sap. |
Leaves : | Leaves simple, alternate and spiral, 10-34 by 8-26 cm, broadly ovate or circular, sometimes lobed, apex acuminate, base peltate, rounded, margin glandular dentate, blade chartaceous subglabrous on upper surface, very densely covered by stellate hairs below, with 1 to 4 nectaries(+) on lamina near on leaf base. Petiole 5-22 cm long, very densely hairy as the other parts of the plants. Stipules linear, falling early. |
Inflorescences or flowers : | Flowers unisexual, on separate plants. Inflorescence terminal, spike-like, male branched, female pendant, covered with yellowish wooly stellate hairs. Pedicel shorter than 0.5cm. Male flowers small, female flowers with 4-5 yellow styles. |
Fruits : | Fruit is a capsule, globose, depressed at the top covered with spines bearing dense woolly stellate hairs, splitting irregularly into 4-6 parts. |
Seeds : | Seeds 4 to 6, ovoid, glossy and black. |