Camirium Gaertner.

Evergreen trees, monoecious; indumentum of stellate hairs. Leaves alternate; stipules minute, soon lost; petiole long, 2-glandular at apex; leaf blade simple, entire or 3-5-lobed, palmately 3-5-veined. Inflorescence terminal, branched, conical, lower bracts subtending clusters of male flowers, each major axis terminated by solitary female flower; buds subglobose. Male flowers: calyx splitting irregularly into 2 or 3(or 4) valvate lobes; petals 5, white or cream; disk glands 5, thick; stamens 15-32 in 3 or 4 series, outer ones free, inner ones united into column; anthers 2-locular, basi- to dorsibasifixed, introrse; pistillode absent. Female flowers similar to male but slightly larger, pedicellate; ovary 2(or 3)-locular; ovules 1 per locule; styles bifid. Fruit a drupe, subglobose; exocarp thinly fleshy; endocarp woody, 1- or 2-seeded. Seeds compressed globose, not carunculate.

Two species: one endemic to Hawaii, the other widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Oceania; one species in China.

(Authors: Li Bingtao (李秉滔 Li Ping-tao); Michael G. Gilbert)