Dalechampia Plum.

Dalechampia Plum. View in CoL ex L.

Dalechampia Plum. View in CoL ex L. (1753) 1054, (1754) 473; A.Juss. (1824) 55; Baill. (1858) 485; Miq. (1859) 417; Müll.Arg. (1866) 1232; Benth. in Benth. & Hook.f. (1880) 330; Hook.f. (1888) 467; Pax (1890) 67; Pax & K.Hoffm. (1919) 3; Gagnep. (1926) 344; Pax & K.Hoffm. (1931) 151; Hurus. (1954) 293; Backer & Bakh.f. (1963) 492; Airy Shaw (1972) 251, (1975) 6;Armbr. (1988) 303; G.L.Webster & Armbr. (1991) 137; G.L. Webster (1994) 95; Philcox (1997) 176; Armbr. (1994) 302; L.J.Gillespie & Armbr. (1997) 14; Govaerts et al. (2000) 547; Radcl.-Sm. (2001) 262; S.S. Larsen (2005) 226; G.L. Webster (2014) 154. ― Dalechampia Plum. View in CoL ex L. sect. Eudalechampia Müll.Arg (1866) 1233, nom. inval. ― Type: Dalechampia scandens View in CoL L.

Cremophyllum Scheidw. (1842) View in CoL 23. ― Type: Cremophyllum spathulatum Scheidw. View in CoL (= Dalechampia spathulata (Scheidw.) Baill. View in CoL ).

[ Rhopalostylis Klotzsch ex Baill. (1865) 317, nom. inval., in synonymy, non H.Wendl. & Drude ( Arecaceae ). ― Based on: Rhopalostylis buettnerioides Klotzsch ex Baill. (= Dalechampia micrantha Poepp. )].

Dalechampia Plum. ex L. sect. Champadelia Müll.Arg. (1866) 486. ― Type: D. houllettianum Baill. (perhaps not Euphorbiaceae , see above).

Megalostylis S. Moore (1916) View in CoL 250. ― Type: Megalostylis poeppigii S.Moore View in CoL (= Dalechampia micrantha Poepp. View in CoL ).

Perennial herbs to erect or usually twining shrubs, monoecious. Indumentum of simple soft and stiff sharp trichomes, sometimes in parts glandular trichomes. Stipules rather persistent, relatively large, with basal glands inside. Leaves spiral, simple and unlobed to palmatifid to trifoliolate to palmate, petiolate, base often with 2 (stipelliform) glands adaxially, margin entire to usually serrate or dentate, especially in upper half, with at lower surface erect glands; basally often palmately veined, lobes penninerved, secondary veins looped and closed near margin. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, solitary, pseudanthial, bisexual, bilaterally partite (staminate and pistillate flowers separated), subtended by a pair of usually sessile, subopposite, often showy involucral bracts, entire to serrate to 3-lobate, each with a pair of stipules; basally the pistillate flowers, present as a contracted, usually 3-flowered dichasium inserted above the lower involucral bract and subtended by a bract and 1 or 2 fused upper bracteoles; staminate part terminal, apparently inserted between pistillate cymule and upper involucral bract, pleiochasium of 5 (or 7) sessile, generally 3-flowered cymules with bracts next to a mass of fused, triterpenoid resin secreting bractlets, often lamellate. Flowers symmetric, pedicellate, petals and disc absent. Staminate flowers: pedicel usually articulate halfway; receptacle convex or column-like; sepals 4–6, valvate, recurving at anthesis, stamens (8 or) 10–30(–100), filaments basally connate into a column, anthers with 2 thecae, opening via latrorse lengthwise slits; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers subsessile, but pedicels elongating in fruit; sepals 5–12, entire or divided, imbricate, entire or pinnatifid; ovary 3- or (4-)locular; 1 ovule per locule; style long, apically broadened, stigmatic tis- sue at tip of style to extending down to sometimes 3/4 of style. Fruit a 3- or (4-)lobed capsule, dehiscing into 2-valved cocci; often subtended by an accrescent calyx, often armed with stiff trichomes; valves thin, woody; columella persistent. Seeds subglobose, without caruncle, smooth.

Distribution — About 118 species ( Govaerts et al. 2000), mostly American (Neotropics), central and southern Africa, Madagascar, S and SE Asia, and West Malesia. In Malesia one species and one occasionally cultivated species.