喜树属 xi shu shu

Trees deciduous, polygamo-monoecious. Young branchlets puberulous. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade oblong-ovate to oblong-elliptic, papery, slightly puberulous. Heads terminal or axillary. Bracts 3, triangular-ovate, both surfaces puberulous. Calyx cyathiform, 5-lobed; lobes tooth-shaped, margin ciliate. Petals 5, caducous, imbricate, pale green, oblong to oblong-ovate, outside densely puberulous. Stamens 10, unequal in length, inserted on disk, in 2 whorls; filaments slender, glabrous; anthers 4-celled. Ovary inferior, 1-loculed; ovules 1 per locule; style glabrous, 2-lobed. Fruit samaralike, clustered in globose heads, oblong, sessile, disk persistent. Seed 1; radicle terete, cotyledons thin.

● Two species: China.

Camptotheca is a primary source of anticancer camptothecin (Li et al., Pl. Med. (Stuttgart) 68: 1010-1016. 2002).

Lower Taxa

• Camptotheca acuminata Decaisne
• Camptotheca lowreyana S. Y. Li