Croton brachypus Airy Shaw

Airy Shaw, H.K. (1981) Muelleria 4(3): 224. Type: Queensland, Tozer Range, 0.8 km east of Mt. Tozer, 6 July 1948, Brass 19462; holo: K.

Sometimes grows into a small tree but usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-4 m tall.

Leaf blades about 7-17 x 4-7 cm, often arranged in tight spirals or pseudowhorls on sections of the twigs. Two cup-shaped glands present on the underside of the leaf blade at its junction with the petiole. Stellate scales present on young leaves, twigs and petioles. Stipules small and inconspicuous. Numerous oil dots visible with a lens.

Male flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam. with a corolla, petals clothed in long woolly hairs particularly on the inner surface towards the base. Disk clothed in long woolly hairs. Female flowers produced near the base of the inflorescence. Female flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam. without a corolla, ovary densely clothed in stellate hairs or scales, seated on a disk of five fleshy glands. Styles three but each with two long stigmatic arms.

Capsules with scattered stellate scales on the outer surface.

Features not available.

Endemic to CYP. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 500 m. Grows as an understory plant in various types of rain forest and monsoon forest.

Very similar to Croton triacros and doubtfully distinct.