Volume 8 > Part 1 > Year 2005 > Page 136 > Euphorbiaceae > Breynia

4. Breynia glauca Craibwfo-0000412635

Bull. Misc, Inform. Kew 1911: 460. 1911; Aberdeen Univ. Stud. 57: 187. 1912; Beille in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 5: 633. 1927; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 26: 226. 1972; Welzen & Esser in Welzen et al., Thai Forest Bull., Bot. 28: 76. 2000. Fig. 30; Plate VII: 3.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Shrub to treelet, up to 5 m high, much branched, sometimes struggling, glabrous. Stipules 1.6–2.5 by 0.8–1.2 mm. Leaves: petiole 2–4 mm long; blade elliptic to ovate, 3.3–7.5 by 1.5–4.3 cm, length/width ratio 1.5–2.7, coriaceous, base obtuse to acute, symmetric, margin often recurved, apex acute to acuminate; nerves 6–8 until apex, distinctly glaucous beneath with veinlets indistict. Staminate flowers 2.6–3 mm in diam.; pedicel ca 3 mm long; calyx green to orange, 2.2–2.5 by 2.6–3 mm, relatively thin, straight; androphore 1.8–2.3 mm long, anthers 1.2 1.5 mm long. Pistillate flowers 1–4 per axil, 2.2–8 mm diam.; pedicel 1.2–2.5 mm long; calyx 2–3 mm long but soon accrescent, chartaceous to coriaceous, green to yellow, glaucous outside or not, lobes 1–3.2 mm wide, overlapping; ovary fusiform, 1.6–2 by 0.9–1 mm diam.; stigmas 1.1–1.3(–2 in fruit) mm long, not united, apically split for 0.1–0.2 mm or simple, erect to slightly reflexed but never spreading horizontally. Fruits solitary or in groups; pedicel 2.5–6 mm long; alyx chartaceous to coriaceous, 6.5–8 mm in diam., with free lobes 1–1.5 mm long, capsule ca 5 by 6–7 mm, turning yellow to red, drying shiny blackish-brown, without an apical crown. Seeds 3.7–4.2 by 2–2.2 by 1.7–2 mm, red.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Doi Suthep – type: Kerr 864 -BM K, isotype), Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan, Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Phitsanulok, Kamphaeng Phet; NORTH-EASTERN: Phetchabun, Loei, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen; EASTERN: Chaiyaphum; SOUTH WESTERN: Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan; SOUTH-EASTERN: Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi, Trat; PENINSULAR: Chumphon, Surat Thani.

Distribution : Burma, Laos, Borneo (Sabah, Anamba Islands).

Ecology : Dry deciduous dipterocarp-oak forests, dry evergreen forests, oak-pine forests, coastal sand dune forests, gallery forests, hill evergreen forests, transition with Melaleuca swamp forests, secondary thickets and forests, roadsides; on granitic, shale or sandstone bedrock, sandy, even on poor or bare soil; sea level to 1,300 m alt.

Vernacular : Cha sisiat (จ้าสีเสียด)(Lamphun); dap phit (ดับพิษ), phak wan dang (ผักหวานด่าง)(Mae Hong Son); ra ngap phit (ระงับพิษ)(Chiang Mai); prik (ปริก)(Prachuap Khiri Khan).

Notes: Airy Shaw (1972) mentioned that Breynia glauca is the western vicariant (Myanmar, Thailand, and W. Laos) of the more eastern and north-eastern B. fruticosa (China, Indochina, Thailand). This could be confirmed. Both species do not seem to overlap in their range. The styles consitute the main difference, and they are hardly distinguishable otherwise.