Croton 
triangular, c. 1.5 mm long, with an apical tuft of 
hairs. Fruit on pedicel c. 3 mm long, depressed 
globular, c. 6 mm long, sparsely stellate-pubescent. 
Flowering: Oct - Dec; fruiting: Dec. Fig. 71 
EUPHORBIACEAE 213 
Endemic to Australia, from the Kimberley to 
western Arnhem Land on rocky sites. In the DR known 
only from monsoon thickets on granite outcrops at 
Mt. Bundey. 
DRYPETES Vahl 
A genus of c. 200 species found throughout the tropics and also in subtropical parts of east Asia, southern 
Africa and eastern Australia. Two species occur in Australia, 1 of which is found in the NT and the DR. 
D. deplanchei (Brong. & Gris) Merr. 
D. lasiogyna (F.Muell.) Pax & Hoffm. 
A deciduous tree to 8(15) m tall with smooth 
blotched grey and white bark; blaze creamy yellow. 
Young shoots, branchlets, petioles, and leaf bases 
tomentose. Stipules deciduous, triangular, <1 mm 
long. Juvenile leaves coarsely dentate with spinose 
teeth to 3 mm long. Adult Jeaves alternate, stiffly 
coriaceous; petioles 5-15 mm long; blades glossy 
above, ovate, occasionally elliptic or orbicular, 
33-130 mm long, 18-62 mm wide, L/B 1.1-2.5, 
glabrescent, with fine reticulate venation, base 
rounded, cordate or attenuate, often unequal, margin 
entire, apex rounded, occasionally acute or 
emarginate. Inflorescence a short axillary or 
cauliflorous fascicle, tomentose throughout. Flowers 
dioecious; sepals 4(5), free, suborbicular, tomentose 
outside. Male flowers: c. 3.5 mm long; stamens c. 8, 
filament c. 1 mm, arising with villous hairs from 
between the lobes of the sinuate-margined disk. 
Female flowers: sepals c. 3 mm long; disk annular, 
margin 4-lobed to sinuate; ovary 1-locular with 2 
ovules, pubescent; styles very short; stigmas flabellate 
or occasionally bifid with linear lobes, reflexed and 
adpressed to the apex of the ovary. Fruit a yellow to 
red drupe, compressed ellipsoid or obovoid, 12-18 mm 
long, 8-11 mm diam., sparsely pubescent. Seed 1. 
Flowering: Sept - Nov; fruiting: Dec - Aug. Fig. 71 
Found across northern Australia from the 
Kimberley to the east coast as far south as 
northern NSW; also in New Guinea. Common in 
the DR. Grows in monsoon forest in a variety 
of habitats, rarely in open forest. The fruit are 
edible and the timber is used by Aboriginals 
for implements (Levitt, 1981; Russell-Smith, 
1985). 
ENDOSPERMUM Benth. 
A genus of 12 species from southern China through SE Asia, New Guinea to Polynesia and Fiji. Two species 
occur in Australia, with 1 in the NT and the DR. [Airy Shaw, 1980a,b; Schaeffer, 1971] 
E. medullosum L.S.Sm. 
Tree to 35 m, with pale yellow to white smooth 
bark. Branchlets stout. Young shoots, branchlets, 
petioles and leaf undersurface pubescent with short 
dense stellate hairs. Stipules caducous, c. 2.5 mm long, 
triangular. Leaves spirally arranged. Juvenile leaves 
peltate; petioles c. 315 mm long; blades c. 313 mm 
long, 257 mm wide, sparsely tomentose with simple 
hairs on both surfaces. Adult leaves with petioles to 
150 mm long; blades usually non-peltate, occasion- 
ally peltate, discolorous, ovate to orbicular, 65-165 
mm long, 60-146 mm wide, L/B c. 1, 5-7-nerved, with 
2 yellow-brown flattened glands at junction with peti- 
ole, margin entire with several small glands, apex 
rounded to shortly acuminate. Inflorescence of 
axillary panicles, 100-190 mm long, with racemose 
branches to 40 mm long, stellate tomentose through- 
out. Bracts and bracteoles 1.5-2 mm long, triangular. 
Flowers dioecious, bisexual flowers rarely present, 
calyx indistinctly 4-lobed, petals absent. Male 
flowers: calyx c. 1.5 mm long; stamens 5-7, spirally 
arranged on an androphore c. 1.7 mm long, anthers 
4-valved. Female flowers: pedicels 3-4 mm long; 
calyx c. 1 mm long; ovary tomentose, 1-locular, 
stigma sessile, discoid, lobed, c. 1 mm wide. Bisexual 
flowers: stamens 5 on short filaments. Fruits 
drupaceous, white, thinly fleshy, ellipsoid, c. 9 mm 
long, 7 mm diam., stigma, calyx and (in bisexual 
