Dioecious shrub or small tree, 0.6-3.0 x 0.7-2.2 m; trunk short, branching repeatedly above ground level into thick stems with succulent appearance; younger branches slender. Bark greenish brown, greenish grey or pale grey with small dark spots and longitudinal, narrow, dark markings in places, transverse folds at base of stems and at bends of older branches, usually with few parallel longitudinal ridges on stems and older branches in places, otherwise smooth, not peeling. Branches glabrous with few small lenticels, glutinous when young, not spine-tipped. Exudate watery-milky (initially watery, followed by a milky secretion), not squirting upon branches or branchlets being damaged or cut, glutinous, aromatic, forming a soft, transparent, pale cream-yellowish resin. Leaves trifoliolate with in addition a few scattered, simple and occasionally few, intermediate leaves, clustered on dwarf lateral branchlets, spirally on shoots, glabrous, green: lamina of terminal leaflets oblanceolate or rarely cultrate, (5-)10-18(-36) x (2-)4-8(-13) mm, apex acute to obtuse, base cuneate or slightly acuminate; lamina of lateral leaflets narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate or cultrate to broadly cultrate, often asymmetrically, up to (50)60-70(-100)% as long as terminal leaflet, (3-)6-14(-25) x (1-)3-6(-10) mm, apex acute to obtuse, base cuneate or slightly acuminate; lamina of simple leaves lanceolate-oblong, oblong, narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate or deeply trilobed, (10-)12-18(-20) x (5-)6-8(-10) mm or when trilobed (10-) 17-26(-30) x (15-)19-23(-26) mm, apex acute to obtuse, base cuneate or obtuse; margin serrate, serrate-dentate or rarely crenate-serrate or margin rarely subentire with teeth on terminal leaflets 3-7(-11), on lateral leaflets 2-6(-9) and on simple leaves 5-9(-13) on each side, entire near base; midrib either slightly raised, plane or sunken ad-and abaxially; petiole usually slightly grooved adaxially especially over basal part, 1-18 mm long on trifoliolate and 1-8 mm long on simple leaves, variable in t/s: circular, reniform, elliptic, triangular, crescent-shaped or pentagonal with 3-5 vascular bundles, sectional dimensions (0.4-)0.6-0.7(-0.9) x (0.4-)0.5-0.6(-0.7) mm, leaflets sessile or subsessile. Inflorescence: flowers borne in much reduced or short simple dichasial cymes, up to 3 mm long, glandular, or flowers solitary, axillary. Flowers sessile, or when solitary, subsessile or pedicellate, unisexual, perigynous, appearing before leaves and often continuously while in leaf. Bracteoles ovate, up to 0.4 mm long, apex acute, glandular. Calyx green, continuous with hypanthium. glandular otherwise glabrous, lobes triangular to ovate, apex acute. Petals green to yellowish green, occasionally sparsely glandular, otherwise glabrous, narrowly elliptic or narrowly obovate, recurved apically but the minute tip inflexed, inserted on hypanthium. Disc cylindrical, with 4 fleshy lobes, adnate to hypanthium but distal part of lobes free. Male flowers 2.6-4.7 mm long with pedicel up to 0.3 mm long; calyx 2.1-3.3 mm long; calyx lobes 0.8-1.3 mm long; petals 2.6-4.8 x 0.8-1.6 mm; disc lobes with apices distinctly to obscurely bifid; stamens 4-8, 4 long ones with filaments 1.1-2.9 mm long, inserted on top of disc lobes. 1-4 short ones with filaments 0.6-1.8 mm long, inserted on top of disc between lobes, short stamens rarely completely absent; anthers 0.7-1.3 mm long, equal in length on short and long stamens; filaments rarely flattened and broadened over lower part: gynoecium rudimentary. Female flowers 2.5-4.0 mm long; pedicel up to 0.7 mm long; calyx 2.3-2.9 mm long; calyx lobes 0.8-1.0 mm long; petals 1.3-2.5 x 0.7-1.2 mm; disc lobes distinctly bifid to entire; staminodes present; ovary half inferior; style variable in length from relatively short to relatively long, sutures deeply grooved: stigma obscurely 4-lobed: pistil with stigma from 0.9 mm below top of flower to level with top of flower. 1.7-2.4 x 0.9-1.2 mm. Fruit a drupe, ovoid or ellipsoid. 8.2-9.3 x 6.7-74 x 5.6-6.0 mm. flattened, asymmetrical, pericarp 2-valved; exocarp glabrous, glutinous, green, greenish brown or red when ripe; mesocarp not very fleshy; putamen flattened, asymmetrical ellipsoid with one fertile and one sterile locule, 6.8-74 x 4.8-5.2 x 3.9-4.3 mm. slightly rugose; fertile locule convex in sutural and apical view; sterile locule convex in sutural view, convex or triangular in apical view, often broadly ridged dorsally; suture convex towards fertile locule, especially towards apex; angle between locules at apex 70-105°; pseudo-aril orange, fleshy, cupular, covering 24-30% of fertile locule and 40-50% of the sterile locule, with 2 commissural arms and short facial lobe on sterile locule, extent of commissural arms relative to length of putamen (with pseudoaril removed) 80-90%, facial lobe convex or triangular, 0.6-0.8 mm long, apical pits small.
Home