Compilation
Croton tinctorius

A prostrate, decumbent or ± erect, branched annual or perennial herb up to c. 50 cm high.Stems yellowish or pinkish.Petioles 1–7 cm long.Leaf blades 1.5–7 × 1–5.5 cm, broadly ovate to rhombic-ovate, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed, obtuse or rounded at the apex, asymmetrically cuneate, truncate or shallowly cordate at the base, plicate-undulate at first, later ± flat and shallowly repand-dentate or ± entire on the margin, thinly chartaceous, with 2 discoid dark purple glands at the base, 3–5-nerved from the base; leaf upper surface at first incubously bullate, later ± flat; lateral nerves in 2–3 pairs, tertiary nerves arachnoid, scarcely prominent on both surfaces.Stipules 1–2 mm long, subulate.Inflorescences 1.5–3.5 cm long; bracts resembling the stipules.Male flowers: pedicels c. 1 mm long; calyx lobes 3 × 1 mm, lanceolate, acute, stellate-pubescent without, glabrous within; petals 3 × 1 mm, elliptic-oblong, ± obtuse, lepidote without, glabrous within, yellowish-orange or pinkish; disk c. 1 mm in diameter; staminal column 4 mm high, anthers 15 in (2)3 series, 1 mm long.Female flowers: pedicels 3–7 mm long, extending to 1.5–2 cm in fruit; sepals 1.5–2 × 0.5 mm, linear-lanceolate, acute, stellate-pubescent without, simply puberulous within; petals minute or absent; disk more or less as in the male flowers; ovary 2 × 2 mm, 3-lobed, densely stellate-pubescent; styles 1.5–2 mm long, abaxially stellate-pubescent, adaxially coarsely-papillose, crimson.Fruit 4–5 × 7–9 mm, strongly 3-lobed, densely stellate-pubescent, green at first, later reddish- or bluish-purple.Seeds 3.5 × 3 mm, minutely tuberculate-rugulose or ± smooth; sarcotesta papery when dry, pale grey; sclerotesta dark brownish or blackish.