A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

EUPHORBIACEAE 293
* 3. A. HISPIDA Burm.
A shrub 0.5 to 3 m high. Leaves broadly ovate, 10 to 20 cm long, 6 to
16 cm wide, acuminate, base rounded, slightly cordate, margins rather
coarsely toothed. Spikes unisexual, the pistillate ones dense, cylindric,
pendulous, purple, up to 40 cm long, about 1 cm in diameter. Ovary densely
villous; styles divided into many, filiform, slender, elongated branches.
Frequently cultivated for ornamental purposes, fl. all the year, introduced;
probably a native of Malaya or of Polynesia. A striking ornamental
on account of its dense, cylindric, pendulous purple spikes; cultivated in
all tropical countries.
4. A. WILKESIANA Muell.-Arg. {A. tricolor Seem.).
An erect branched shrub 2 to 5 m high. Leaves broadly ovate, 10 to 18
cm long, 6 to 12 cm wide, acuminate, base rounded or acute, not cordate,
very sparingly hairy on the nerves or quite glabrous, variously mottled
with shades of red, purple, and olive, the margins distinctly and regularly
toothed. Spikes purplish, slender, the staminate ones up to 20 cm long,
less than 5 mm in diameter, interrupted, the flowers glomerate.
An introduced and cultivated species, very ornamental on account of its
variously colored leaves, fl, all the year. A native of the Fiji Islands, now
cultivated in most tropical countries.
5. A. stipulacea Klotz.
An erect, monoecious or dioecious shrub or small tree 2 to 6 m high,
glabrous or nearly so. Leaves oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 10 to 20
cm long, 5 to 9 cm wide, shining, long-acuminate, base usually rounded,
8-nerved, margins crenulate. Spikes axillary, solitary, the staminate ones
slender, greenish, dense, 2 to 2.5 mm in diameter, 10 to 20 cm long, the
pistillate ones stouter, somewhat interrupted, the ovate bracts subtending
the flowers greenish, toothed, 3 to 4 mm long; pistils purplish.
In thickets, San Pedro Macati, fl. Sept., and probably in other months;
throughout the Philippines. Malaya to New Guinea and Samoa.
15. HEVEA Aublet
Trees with abundant milky sap and long-petioled, 3-foliolate leaves, the
petioles glandular at the apex; leaflets entire, thin, penninerved. Flowers
apetalous, monoecious, small, cymose, the cymes paniculate, the central
flowers of each cyme usually female, the others male. Calyx 5-toothed or
lobed. Male flowers: Stamens 5 to 10; filaments united; anthers 1- or
2-verticillate. Disk-glands 5, small, free or united. Female flowers with
a 3-celled ovary; ovules 1 in each cell; stigma thick, sessile or nearly so.
Seeds large, subglobose to oblong. (From the Carib name of some species.)
Species about 7, in the Amazon region, Guiana, etc., 1 now cultivated in
many tropical countries.
• 1. H. BRASiLiENSis (HBK.) Muell.-Arg. Para Rubber Tree.
A nearly glabrous tree reaching a height of 20 m. Leaflets 10 to 20
cm long, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or oblong-obovate, narrowed to the base,
acuminate, about as long as the petioles. Panicles about one-half as long
as the leaves, pyramidal. Flowers white-tomentose. Stamens 10, 2-
seriate, the staminal-column long-produced above the anthers. Capsule
large. Seeds oblong, spotted, 2.5 to 3 cm long.
Immature specimens cultivated in Singalon; of recent introduction in
the Philippines.