Melicope triphylla Merr.

Shrubs or trees, 1.5-6 m tall, dioecious or sometimes monoclinous or andromonoecious. Young branchlets 3-4 mm wide in third internode. Leaves 3-foliolate (occasional leaves 1-foliolate), glabrous; petiole 2-6.5 cm; leaflet blades obovate, oblanceolate, or rarely elliptic, in terminal leaflet 5-12 × 2-4.5 cm, apex acuminate or rarely acute. Inflorescences axillary, 3-7 × 2-6 cm; peduncle obsolete or to 1.5 cm. Pedicel 1.5-3 mm and of similar length in fruit, glabrous. Sepals 0.5-0.8 mm, glabrous or with a few trichomes at apex, connate at base or to ± half their length, persistent in fruit. Petals 2.5-3.5 mm, deciduous in fruit. Stamens 8, in male and bisexual flowers those opposite sepals 2-4 mm and in female flowers 0.5-3.5 mm; filaments at least in male and bisexual flowers acute to subulate at apex. Gynoecium glabrous, in female and bisexual flowers 0.8-1.6 mm, in male flowers 0.3-0.5 mm. Fruit follicles subglobose, 3-4.5 mm, glabrous. Seeds ellipsoid to obovoid, 3-4.5 mm, attachment Type A.

Primary and secondary forest formations, thickets, open places at low elevations in China.

The leaves are cooked.

Can be grown by seedlings.