Volume 8 > Part 2 > Year 2007 > Page 329 > Euphorbiaceae > Glochidion

20. Glochidion sphaerogynum (Müll.Arg.) Kurzwfo-0000973575

Forest Fl. Burma 2: 346. 1877; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 317. 1887; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 26: 280. 1972; Welzen in Welzen et al., Thai Forest Bull., Bot. 28: 91. 2000.

Accepted Name : Phyllanthus sphaerogynus Müll.Arg.
Flora 48: 375. 1865.

Description : Shrub to tree, up to 15 m high, dbh up to 20 cm; flowering twigs 1.5–4mm thick; mainly glabrous. Outer bark longitudinally grooved to vertically flaking in thick strips, brown (to grey to black); inner bark pink to purplish-red, ca 2 cm thick. Leaves wine red with light green nerves when young; stipules deltoid, 1.2–1.7 by 1.2–1.3 mm, very stiff and thick, caducous; petiole 5–8 mm long; blade ovate, often falcate, 5.3–17 by 1.8–4.7 cm, length/width ratio 2.4–3.9, chartaceous to coriaceous, base asymmetric, attenuate, margin flat to slightly revolute, apex long, gradually acute, often mucronate, upper surface (dark) green, lower surface usually with indistinct wax granules, (light) green, venation flat to slightly raised above, slightly raised underneath, indistinct, nerves 9–11 per side, veins scalariformly reticulate. Inflorescences fascicles with many staminate or pistillate flowers, up to 17 per node, pistillate flowers occasionally with a few staminate ones. Flowers yellowish; sepals 6, glabrous, thick, stiff. Staminate flowers ca 3.2 mm in diam.; pedicel 6–13.5 mm long, light greenish-orange; sepals obovate, apex rounded, outer ones even clawed, remaining more or less closed, orangish, outer ones 1.7–2.2 by 1.6–2.2 mm; inner ones ca 1.8 by 1.1–1.8 mm; stamens 3, androecium 1–1.1 mm long; anthers ca 0.8 mm long, cream, connective teeth ca 0.2 mm long. Pistillate flowers 2–3.4 mm in diam.; pedicel 1.2–3 mm in fruit, green to tan-green; sepals ovate, margin lighter in colour, membranous, outer ones 0.5–1.7 by 0.8–1.2 mm; inner ones 0.7–1.5 by 0.5–1.2 mm; ovary 5-locular, very flat and round, ca 2.7 by 1 mm; stigmas forming flat, 1 mm broad circle, each stigma triangular in surface view, flat and in middle depressed. Fruits lobed around seeds, circular in transverse section, flattened, depressed above in centre with a very broad and flat persistent stigma, 9.5–10 by 3.5–4.2 mm high, red, sutures indistinct, always glabrous, wall thin; column 2.2–2.5 by 1.8–2.2 mm, only basal triangle left. Seeds 4–4.2 by 3.2–3.5 by 2.1–2.5 mm, orange to red.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Ban Kong Hae, Bo Luang, Doi Chiang Dao, Doi Inthanon, Doi Suthep, Hot, Huai Bong, Mae Taeng, Mae Klang, Mon Nang Ket), Chiang Rai (Doi Tung, Khun Chae), Lampang (Chae Son), Phrae, Uttaradit; NORTH-EASTERN: Loei (Phu Kradueng); EASTERN: Chaiyaphum (Phu Khiao), Nakhon Ratchasima (Khao Yai).

Distribution : E Himalaya, Assam (type), Burma, Indochina.

Ecology : Common to scattered in deciduous dipterocarp-oak forests, evergreen forests, secondary forests, old clearings, on steep ridges, and along the road, soil: granite bedrock, 500–1,200 m alt.

Vernacular : Man pla (มันปลา)(Chiang Mai).

Uses: Bark and wood used medicinally: dried, chopped into pieces, heated, applied as skin paints over affected spots; also dried and crushed and used in decoctions.