Hura crepitans

SPECIES

1. KingdomPlantae
2. PhylumTracheophyta
3. ClassMagnoliopsida
4. OrderMalpighiales
5. FamilyEuphorbiaceae

Native toBahamas, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras

Observations recorded37,448

Trees up to 40 m tall in wild; stem and main branches densely spiny; indumentum yellowish brown; branches densely lenticellate, glabrous. Stipules lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 10-15 × 2-3 mm, pubescent, caducous; petiole 4-20 cm, apex with 2 glands; leaf blade broadly ovate, 5-29 × 5-17 cm, papery, abaxially pilose along midrib, adaxially glabrous, base cordate, margins ± shallowly dentate-serrate, apex caudate-acuminate, mucronulate; midrib elevated on both surfaces, lateral veins 10-13(-16) on each side. Male flowers: inflorescence ovoid-conical, (1.6-)4-5 × (0.8-)1.5-2 cm, mostly dark red; peduncles (1.2-)7-10 cm, often with solitary female flower at base; pedicel ca. 2 mm; calyx tube 2-3 mm; stamen connectives and filaments connate into column, 4-12 mm, longest at base of catkin; anthers in (1 or)2 or 3 whorls. Female flowers: pedicel 10-17 mm, after anthesis up to 6 cm; calyx tube truncate, 4-6(-8) mm, enclosing ovary; style column 2-5 cm; stigmatic disk dark purple, 1.5-2.5 cm in diam., with 11-14 obtuse lobes, spreading radially. Fruiting pedicel pendent, to 6 cm; fruit oblate, 3-5 × 8-9 cm in diam., becoming reddish brown, concave at apex and base, longitudinally grooved