Volume 8 > Part 2 > Year 2007 > Page 568 > Euphorbiaceae > Thyrsanthera

Thyrsanthera suborbicularis Pierre ex Gagnep.wfo-0000325012

Bull. Soc. Bot. France 71: 878. 1924; in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 5: 299, fig. 32: 2–6; fig. 33: 1, 2, 2’. 1925; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 19: 308. 1965; Kew Bull. 26: 343. 1972; Welzen, Blumea 44: 432, fig. 5, map 4. 1999. Fig. 89.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Herb-like shrub to tree, 20 cm up to 2(–20?) m high. Stipules ca 2.3 by 0.4 mm. Leaves: petiole 2.8–6 cm long; blade 3.8–17 by 3.2–15 cm, length/width ratio 0.9–1.3, glabrous above when old, tomentose underneath, nerves 3–5 per side. Inflorescences up to 6(–16) cm long. Staminate flowers 4.5–9 mm in diam., light yellow; pedicel 2.2–4.5 mm long; sepals 4–4.5 by 1.2–1.6 mm, apex hooked inwards; petals 3.2–5.5 by 1.2–2.1 mm; androphore 3.3–3.5 mm long, lower 1.5–3 mm without filaments; anthers 0.3–0.5 by 0.3–0.5 mm, yellow. Pistillate flowers 5–7 mm in diam.; pedicel 0–2 mm long; sepals 3.3–6.3 by ca 0.2 mm; ovary ovoid, 5–7 by 3–5.5 mm wide. Fruits ca 10 by 7 mm. Seeds 4.2–4.5 by 3.8–4 mm in diam.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan (Hua Wai); EASTERN: Chaiyaphum (Nong Bua Daeng), Buri Ram; CENTRAL: Lop Buri (Lam Narai), Saraburi (Sam Lan); SOUTH-EASTERN: Prachin Buri (Aranyaprathet, Watthana).

Distribution : Cambodia (type), Vietnam.

Ecology : Roadsides, waste lands, open, rocky-sandy areas, thickets, secondary bushes, 50–100 m alt. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year, but mainly around August. Probably fire-resistant (short plant above ground, more elaborate and thicker root system underground; see also Airy Shaw, 1965), and coloniser of waste ground.

Vernacular : Po kapla (ปอกะปลา)(Nakhon Sawan).

Uses: Well-known in Indochina, used as injection or during washing by women giving birth (Gagnepain 1925).

Notes: A somewhat variable species, in Vietnam the glands on the lower leaf surface are much larger and situated in a submarginal row, while elsewhere the glands are much smaller and scattered all over the leaf. In Thailand one specimen had distinctly pedicelled staminate and pistillate flowers (Maxwell 75-115), while all other specimens mainly have subsessile staminate and sessile pistillate flowers.