Drypetes
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Euphorbiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Dioecious shrubs or trees, not producing milky latex. Leaves alternate, simple, entire or denticulate; stipules minute to foliaceous. Flowers produced in axillary fascicles; calyx of 4-6 imbricate lobes; corolla wanting. Staminate flowers with 4-11 stamens with free filaments; nectary disk intrastaminal; pistillode tomentose. Pistillate flowers with an ovary of 1 or 2 carpels, the carpels with 2 ovules, stigmas sessile or nearly so. Fruit a small 1-seeded drupe.
Distribution and Ecology - A variable genus of about 200 species; ca. 10 species in the neotropics, the remaining species in the Old World tropics.