70. Shirakiopsis Esser, Blumea. 44: 184. 1999.
齿叶乌桕属 chi ye wu jiu shu
Authors: Bingtao Li & Hans-Joachim (Hajo) Esser
Trees, monoecious; flowering and fruiting twigs with leaves; indumentum of pale to yellowish [or reddish], multicellular, uniseriate hairs. Leaves regularly alternate; stipules ovate to triangular, undivided, without glands; petiole much shorter than blade, without glands; leaf blade oblong to elliptic to ovate, abaxial surface paler than adaxial one but not whitish and not papillate, with 0-10 strictly marginal glands on each side, basal glands slightly larger but very similar, adaxial surface eglandular, base obtuse to slightly attenuate, margin serrate with teeth 3-5 mm apart, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, yellowish, racemelike thyrses, unbranched, without sterile basal region, bisexual, pilose. Male flowers (3-)5-7 in cymules, pedicellate; bracts triangular, pilose to ciliate, at base with a pair of elongate-spheroidal to elliptic glands touching axis of thyrse and sometimes decurrent; calyx with 3 sepals, fused at base; petals and disk absent; stamens 3; filament and anther of similar length. Female flowers 1-3 at base of inflorescence, sometimes absent; pedicel distinct; sepals [2 or]3, irregularly triangular, fused at base, glandless; petals and disk absent; ovary [2 or]3-locular, smooth, usually glabrous; style present; stigmas [2 or]3, undivided, glandless. Fruits distinctly (at least 8 mm) pedicellate; mericarps 3-seeded [2-seeded in African species], smooth, dry and woody [partly fleshy in S. virgata], regularly dehiscent along septa (sometimes tardily so) [mericarps with very thick pericarp in Malesian taxa (fruit length/pericarp thickness more than 10:1) but much thinner pericarp in African taxa]; septa with a separate basal triangle and 1 vascular strand; central columella alate. Seeds elliptic, dry; caruncle very inconspicuous to absent.
Six species: three in tropical Africa and three in tropical Asia, from India to Cambodia and to the Caroline and the Solomon Islands; one species (introduced) in China.
