Croton glandulosus var. hirtus (Introduced)

Croton glandulosus var. hirtus (L’Hér.) Müll.Arg., Prodr. 15(2): 684 1866. (syn: Brachystachys hirta (L’Hér.) Klotzsch; Croton aberrans Müll.Arg.; Croton glandulosus subsp. hirtus (L’Hér.) Croizat; Croton glandulosus var. martii Müll.Arg.; Croton glandulosus var. subincanus Müll.Arg.; Croton guaraniticus Chodat & Hassl. ….; Croton hirtus L’Hér.; Oxydectes aberrans (Müll.Arg.) Kuntze; Oxydectes glandulosa var. hirta (L’Hér.) Kuntze; Podostachys hirta (L’Hér.) Klotzsch);

Argentina Northeast; Argentina Northwest; Belize; Benin; Bolivia; Borneo; Brazil
North; Brazil Northeast; Brazil South; Brazil Southeast; Brazil West-Central;
Burkina; Chagos Archipelago; Colombia; Costa Rica; Ecuador; French Guiana;
Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Honduras; India; Ivory Coast; Jamaica; Jawa;
Leeward Is.; Liberia; Malaya; Mexico Central; Mexico Gulf; Mexico Northwest;
Mexico Southeast; Mexico Southwest; New Guinea; Nicaragua; Paraguay; Peru;
Sierra Leone; Sumatera; Suriname; Tanzania; Thailand; Trinidad-Tobago;
Venezuela; Windward Is.; Zare as per Catalogue of Life (Croton hirtus L’Hér.);

Common name: Hairy Croton

Erect dichotomously branched aromatic herbs upto 60 cm high; branchlets with white to pale yellow strigose-stellate hairs. Leaves 2.4-9 x 1.5-7.8 cm, ovate to ovate-oblong, base truncate, broadly cuneate or oblique, margins irregularly serrate, apex acute, stellate white hairy on both sides, 3-5-nerved from base, 2-stalked gland present at the base of lamina; petiole 0.3-6.5 cm long, stellate hairy; stipules 2-5 mm long, linear, stellate hairy. Inflorescence terminal, upto 4 cm long with multibranched numerous glandular hairs, female flowers below, male flowers above; bracts 2-4 mm long, linear, glandular hairy. Male flowers white; pedicels c. 1 mm long, stellate hairy; tepals 10, 2-seriate, white, 1.5-2 x 0.5-1 mm, obovate or oblanceolate, obtuse or acute at apex, stellate hairy without. Stamens many. Female flowers green; tepals 5; longer ones 3, c. 3 mm long, obovate; shorter ones 2, 1-1.5 mm long. Ovary c. 1.5 mm long, ovoid, stellate hairy. Capsules 3-5 x 3-4 mm, ovoid, stellate hairy. Seeds 2-3 mm long, trigonous, brown with black patches, caruncle cream.

Flowering and fruiting: Throughout the year

Wastelands

West Indies, Central and South America and Tropical Asia

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi from India Biodiversity Portal)