Taxonomy: Plantae >Tracheophyta > Equisetopsida > Malpighiales > Euphorbiaceae > Mallotus > M. philippensis

Description: Dioecious trees, to 12 m high, bark 4-5 mm thick, pale brown; branchlets, young leaves and inflorescence tawny or rusty pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules lateral, cauducous; petiole 7-60 mm long, stout, swollen at base, fulvous-pubescent with 2 small sessile glands on each side of the submit; lamina 5-20 x 2-8 cm, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, base acute or round, apex acuminate or acute, margin entire or sparsely serrate, glabrous above, greyish pubescent to fulvous tomentose with minute red glands beneath; coriaceous; 3-ribbed from base; lateral nerves upto 6 pairs, pinnate, ascending, prominent, intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers unisexual, brick red, in rusty puberulous, terminal spicate panicles; male flowers: 4.5 mm across; tepals 4, lanceolate, stamens many; female flowers: 4 mm across, tepals 3 or 4, thicker than in males, ovate-lanceolate; ovary with red glands, superior, 3-celled, ovules one in each cell; styles 3, to 3.5 mm long, papillose. Fruit a capsule, 7-8 mm across, globose, 3-lobed, loculicidally 3 valved, densely red-glandular, pubescent; seeds 1-4, globose, glabrous, black.

Flowering and fruiting: March- April

Uses: Folk medicine and Siddha

Cultivation: Cultivated, Ornamental, Wild

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org