Baliospermum Blume

Baliospermum Blume View in CoL

Baliospermum Blume (1826) View in CoL 603; Decne. (1844) 154, t. 154 ‘155’; Baill. (1858) 394; Müll.Arg. (1866) 1125; Benth.(1880) 324; Hook.f. (1887) 461; J.J.Sm. (1910) 599; Pax & K.Hoffm. (1912) 24; Ridl. (1924) 312; Gagnep. (1927) 429; Pax & K.Hoffm. (1931) 182; Backer & Bakh.f. (1963) 497; Airy Shaw (1972) 222; Whitmore (1973) 68; Airy Shaw (1981) 267; (1982) 8; Radcl.-Sm. (1986) 83; Grierson & D.G.Long (1987) 809; Chakrab. & N.P.Balakr.(1992 ‘1990’) 3; G.L. Webster (1994) 108; Govaerts et al. (2000) 242; Radcl.-Sm. (2001) 306; Phattar. & Chayam. (2005) 120; Thin (2007) 261; P.T.Li & M.G.Gilbert (2008) 277; (2009) f. 333:4; G.L. Webster (2014) 177. ― Baliospermum Blume sect. Baliospermum : Chakrab. & N.P.Balakr. (1992 ‘1990’) 5. ― Type: Baliospermum axillare Blume View in CoL [= Baliospermum solanifolium (Burm.) Suresh View in CoL ].

Shrubs, dioecious or monoecious. Indumentum of simple, strigose hairs. Stipules small and triangular or round, somewhat elevated, bud-like structures. Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate; blade deeply lobed or not, margin serrate to crenate, with glands in teeth underneath, the basal ones close to the petiole enlarged, basally 3- or 5-nerved. Inflorescences axillary to terminal, racemes or panicles, pedunculate to almost sessile, uni- or sometimes bisexual, staminate ones many-flowered per node, pistillate ones few-flowered or reduced to a single flower in the leaf axil. Flowers symmetric; pedicel with subbasal abscission zone; sepals 5 (or 6), connate at base, imbricate; petals absent. Staminate flowers small, pedicellate; sepals membranous, margin entire; disc annular and lobed or consisting of 5 (or 6) free glands; stamens 9–21, filaments free, thin, broadening towards the broadly triangular connective; anthers 2-thecate, thecae almost confluent on top of connective, opening latrorse with lengthwise slits; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers larger than staminate ones, shortly pedicellate, elongating in fruit; sepals chartaceous, margin entire to often lobed with glands, persistent and sometimes accrescent; disc annular, lobed inside sepals, thin, flat, whitish when dry; ovary 3-locular, smooth, glabrous or hairy; ovules 1 per locule; styles absent, stigmas recurving, widening into shortly split wings. Fruits lobed capsules, septicidally and (partly to) completely loculicidally dehiscent, subglobose; columella persistent, apically shortly T-shaped. Seeds subglobose, marbled, ecarunculate.

Distribution ― Five species (ranging from the Himalayas to Yunnan, Myanmar, Indochina to Malesia (Sumatra, Java, Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands) ( Airy Shaw 1972, 1982, Govaerts et al. 2000, Phattarahirankanok & Chayamarit 2005).