Croton

California croton Croton californicus, copyright Jim Morefield.

Belongs within: Euphorbiaceae.

Croton is a genus of trees and shrubs bearing stellate hairs on the leaves and stems found in tropical and warm temperate regions of the world (Hickman 1993).

Characters (from Hickman 1993): Annual, perennial, shrub, tree, monoecious or dioecious; sap clear or colored. Stems generally erect. Leaves generally simple, cauline, alternate; hairs generally stellate. Inflorescence a spike or raceme, generally terminal. Staminate flowers generally pedicelled; sepals generally 5; petals 5 or absent; stamens 8-50(300), filaments free, bent inward in bud; nectar disk generally divided. Pistillate flowers with pedicel short or absent, becoming longer in fruit; sepals generally 5, entire to lobed; petals gen absent; nectar disk entire; ovary 3-chambered, styles 2-lobed or toothed. Fruit spheric or three-lobed, smooth or tubercled. Seeds one per chamber, smooth to ribbed or pitted; scar appendaged.

<==Croton [Crotonoideae]
    |--C. acronychioides H90
    |--C. alabamensis DL07
    |--C. aridus LK14
    |--C. arnhemicus LK14
    |--C. bonplandianum P03
    |--C. californicus [incl. C. californicus var. mohavensis,. C. californicus var. tenuis] H93
    |--C. capitatus H90
    |--C. ciliato-glandulosus BT87
    |--C. corymbulosus BT72
    |--C. draconoides GA97
    |--C. gibsonianus SR07
    |--C. glabellus J87
    |--C. gossipifolius PWP96
    |--C. habrophyllus LK14
    |--C. insularis B00
    |--C. macrostachyus E09
    |--C. megalocarpus HSS13
    |--C. oblongifolius P03
    |--C. phebalioides [incl. C. maidenii] H90
    |--C. poecilanthus SWK87
    |--C. schultzii LK14
    |--C. sonderianus BP09
    |--C. stigmatosus H90
    |--C. tiglium P88
    |--C. tinctorium B02
    |--C. tomentellus LK14
    |--C. verreauxii H90
    `--C. wigginsii H93

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BT72] Baker, E. W., & D. M. Tuttle. 1972. New species and further notes on the Tetranychoidea mostly from the southwestern United States (Acarina: Tetranychidae and Tenuipalpidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 116: 1–37.

[BT87] Baker, E. W., & D. M. Tuttle. 1987. The false spider mites of Mexico (Tenuipalpidae: Acari). United States Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin 1706: 1–237.

[B02] Bouvier, M. 1802. Sur le Clematis flammula, et le Croton tinctorium. Bulletin des Sciences, par la Societé Philomathique de Paris 1 (Bulletin de la Société Philomathique, a ses correspondans): 13'.

[B00] Braby, M. F. 2000. Butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution vol. 1. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Victoria).

[BP09] Bravo, F., H. Pohl, A. Silva-Neto & R. G. Beutel. 2009. Bahiaxenidae, a "living fossil" and a new family of Strepsiptera (Hexapoda) discovered in Brazil. Cladistics 25 (6): 614–623.

[DL07] Davis, C. C., M. Latvis, D. L. Nickrent, K. J. Wurdack & D. A. Baum. 2007. Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae. Science 315: 1812.

[E09] Ensermu K. 2009. Three new species of Acanthaceae from Ethiopia. Kew Bulletin 64 (1): 57–65.

[GA97] Gillespie, L. J., & W. S. Armbruster. 1997. A contribution to the Guianan flora: Dalechampia, Haematostemon, Omphalea, Pera, Plukenetia, and Tragia (Euphorbiaceae) with notes on subfamily Acalyphoideae. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 86: 1–48.

[H90] Harden, G. J. (ed.) 1990. Flora of New South Wales vol. 1. New South Wales University Press.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[HSS13] Hirschfeld, E., A. Swash & R. Still. 2013. The World's Rarest Birds. Princeton University Press: Princeton (New Jersey).

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[PWP96] Palmer, W. A., B. W. Willson & K. R. Pullen. 1996. The host range of Aconophora compressa Walker (Homoptera: Membracidae): a potential biological control agent for Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 98 (4): 617–624.

[P03] Paul, T. K. 2003. Botanical observations on the Purulia pumped storage hydropower project area, Bagmundi Hills, Purulia district, West Bengal. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 45: 121–142.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[SR07] Sankar, R. V., K. Ravikumar, N. M. Ganesh Babu & D. K. Ved. 2007. Botany of Anapady MPCA, Palghat district, Kerala with special emphasis on species of conservation concern. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 165–172.

[SWK87] Snyder, N. F. R., J. W. Wiley & C. B. Kepler. 1987. The Parrots of Luquillo: Natural history and conservation of the Puerto Rican parrot. Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology: Los Angeles.