STERCULIACEAE (\ $29 
Fruit oblong, 10 to 15 em long, prominently wrinkled, yellow or purplish. 
Seeds numerous. (FI. Filip. pl. 275.) 
Occasionally cultivated in our area, fl. all the year; throughout the 
Philippines in cultivation. A native of tropical America, introduced here by 
the Spaniards at an early date, now cultivated in most tropical countries. 
4, KLEINHOFIA Linnaeus 
A tree with simple, broadly ovate, acuminate, entire, palmately nerved 
leaves. Panicles terminal, ample, lax, many-flowered. Flowers small,. 
numerous. Sepals 5, deciduous. Petals 5, unequal, the upper with longer 
claws, margins involute. Staminal-column dilated above into a 5-fid cup, 
each lobe with 3 anthers. Ovary inserted in the staminal-cup, 5-lobed, 
5-celled. Capsule membranaceous, inflated, obovate, loculicidally 5-valved. 
Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell. (In honor of M. Kleinhof, a Dutch botanist.) 
A monotypic genus. 
1. K. hospita L. Tanag (Tag., Vis.) ; Bitnong (Il.). 
A tree 8 to 15 m high, somewhat pubescent or nearly glabrous. Leaves 
broadly ovate, acuminate, base 5- or 7- nerved, cordate or truncate, 10 
-to 20 cm long, long-petioled. Panicles ample, 20 to 40 cm long. Flowers 
pink, about 8 mm long, the sepals longer than the petals. Capsules about 
2em long. (FI. Filip. pl. 328.) 
In thickets, Pasay, occasional, fl. Sept.-Nov.; common and widely dis- 
tributed in the Philippines. Eastern Africa, tropical Asia, to Formosa, 
southward to Malaya. 
5. HELICTERES Linnaeus 
Shrubs, more or less stellate-pubescent, with simple leaves. Flowers 
axillary, solitary, fascicled, or in spike-like cymes. Calyx tubular, 5-fid, 
often irregular. Petals 5, clawed, equal or unequal, the claws often auri- 
cled. Staminal-column adnate to the gynophore, 5-toothed or lobed at 
the apex; anthers in groups between the teeth of the column, the cells 
divergent. Ovary at the top of the column, 5-lobed, 5-celled; styles slender, 
more or less united. Fruits follicular, oblong, usually shaggy-hairy. 
(Greek “twisted” or “spiral” in reference to the twisted carpels of some 
species.) 
Species about 30 in the tropics of both hemispheres, 2 in the Philippines. 
1. H. hirsuta Lour. (H. spicata Colebr.). 
An erect, somewhat branched shrub 1 or 3 m high, all parts more or 
less pubescent. Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, toothed, beneath stellate- 
pubescent, 10 to 20 cm long, the base obliquely cordate, apex long-acumi- 
nate. Cymes axillary, spike-like, 5 to 8 cm long. Flowers purple, nearly 
2 em long. Calyx stellate-pubescent, the lobes acuminate. Fruit oblong, 
3 to 4 em long, beaked, very shaggy. (FI. Filip. pl. 97.) 
In thickets, Masambong, Fort McKinley, etc., fl. Sept._Nov., and probably 
in other months; widely distributed in the Philippines. India to China 
and Malaya. 
6. PTEROSPERMUM Schreber 
Trees, mostly scaly or stellate-tomentose. Leaves. coriaceous, large, 
often oblique, simple or lobed. Peduncles 1 to 3, axillary and terminal, 
the bracteoles entire or laciniate. Flower large. Calyx of 5 or more 
connate sepals. Petals 5, falling with the calyx. Staminal-column short, 
