Macaranga EUPHORBIACEAE 225 
Widespread, extending north from Australia 
to southern China. In Australia occurring from 
Darwin eastward to Cape York and south to 
NSW. Occurs in coastal and subcoastal monsoon 
forest usually in damp swales or on perennial 
streams. 
MALLOTUS Louwr. 
Shrubs or slender trees. Branchlets, petioles, young shoots, leaf undersurfaces, and inflorescence with a 
persistent close tomentum of stellate or dendritic hairs. Undersurface of blades and fruit + covered with 
sessile vesicular glands. Stipules obscure. Leaves alternate or opposite, discolorous, penniveined with lower 
pair of secondary veins prominent, and reaching above half way, tertiary veins + parallel and forming a 
scalariform pattern, base often with a pair of glands, margin + entire, sometimes with glands at the ends of the 
veins and blister-like intramarginal glands. Flowers dioecious, in axillary or terminal racemes. Fruit 2-3- 
locular. Seeds usually black, shiny, spherical, ecarunculate. 
A genus of c. 140 species occurring widely through the Old World tropics. Eleven species occur in 
Australia, with 3 in the NT and 2 in the DR. All NT species are treated here. [Airy Shaw, 1980a] 
[ume LCAVESOPPOSilenrmeremteterst arm tt ietirtnsttestettttecetessessisteststtttsrssetetsrtesetrertts M. didymochryseus 
[Wea Ceavestaltcrnatesrememrnettnmtreiitcnertatrnitntrristest tteretiiytrretsiterttti tr tsraccertttes 2 
2. Glands on underside of leaves and on fruit red; leaf L/B mostly 1.1-3 oc ceeeseeeeeeeeeees M. philippensis 
2. Glands on underside of leaves and on fruit yellow; leaf L/B mostly 0.9-1.2 oo... 
M. didymochryseus Airy Shaw 
An ?evergreen tree or shrub to 10 m tall. Bark grey, 
blaze cream. Branchlets, inflorescence, petioles, 
shoots and fruit encrusted with a dense yellow 
indumentum of short-armed dendritic hairs. Leaves 
decussate; petioles 16-50 mm long; blades broadly 
ovate, 50-167 mm long, 35-140 mm wide, L/B 0.9- 
1.2, upper surface stellate pubescent, undersurface 
with a soft tomentose indumentum, glands obscure, 
hyaline, base rounded or cordate, margin entire to 
shallowly dentate, veins ending in glands covered with 
tufts of stellate hairs, apex acute to obtuse. Male in- 
florescence 20-80 mm long, female 80-100 mm long. 
Fruit 2-locular, apparently indehiscent, 10-17 mm 
long, 12-14 mm diam., drying with a coarsely wrin- 
kled surface, glands sparse, hyaline. Seeds dark brown, 
c. 7 mm diam. Flowering: Feb; fruiting: Feb - July. 
Fig. 74 
Occurring in New Guinea, and northern Australia 
in WA and E Arnhem Land. Not known from the DR. 
Usually occurring in coastal vine thickets. 
M. nesophilus Muell.Arg. 
A semideciduous tree to 8 m tall. Bark pale, grey, 
fissured. Branchlets, inflorescence, petioles, shoots 
and leaf undersurfaces with a short dense whitish or 
rusty tomentum of simple and stellate hairs. Leaves 
alternate; petioles 6-82 mm long; blades ovate or 
M. nesophilus 
orbicular, rarely deltoid, rhomboid or elliptic, 20-111 
mm long, 15-95 mm wide, L/B 0.9-1.2(1.6), upper 
surface green, glabrescent with stellate and simple 
hairs, glands below numerous, yellow, base truncate 
or cuneate, margin entire, rarely sinuate, apex acute 
to rounded. Male inflorescence 35-150 mm long, 
female 25-30 mm long. Fruit 2-3-locular, apparently 
indehiscent, c. 5 mm long, 8 mm diam., cocci walls 
thin, glands yellow turning orange as the fruit ripens. 
Seeds c. 4 mm diam. Flowering and fruiting: most 
months. Fig. 74 
Endemic to northern Australia, from WA to Qld. 
Common in the DR. A common species of coastal 
vine thickets; also in sandstone gorges. The fruit are 
edible (Levitt, 1981). 
M. philippensis (Lam.) Muell.Arg. 
An evergreen tree to 10 m tall, rarely more. Bark 
smooth, pale grey, mottled. Leaves alternate; petioles 
11-75(124) mm long; blades mostly lanceolate, also 
ovate or broadly elliptic, 35-210 mm long, 25-100 
mm wide, L/B 1.1-3(3.6), upper surface glabrous or 
with scattered stellate hairs, glands below red, base 
cuneate or rounded, margin entire, marginal glands 
obscure, intramarginal glands absent, apex acute to 
acuminate. Male inflorescence 35-65 mm long; 
female 35-85 mm long. Fruit 2-3-locular, 5-6 mm 
long, c. 7 mm diam., covered with a dense layer of 
red glands. Seeds c. 4 mm diam., adhering to the 
