Mallotus nepalensis Müll. Arg.

Shrubs or small trees, 3-6 m tall. Branchlets and inflorescences brownish-yellowish stellate-tomentose. Petiole 5-15 cm, tomentulose; leaf blade orbiculate-ovate or triangular-ovate, 10-23 × 8-24 cm, papery, abaxially brownish or gray stellate-pilose, sparsely orange glandular-scaly, adaxially glabrescent, base truncate or slightly cordate, sometimes slightly peltate, with 2 maculate glands, margin entire, sometimes shortly 3-lobed, apex acuminate; basal veins 3. Male inflorescences unbranched, 10-15 cm; bracts lanceolate-subulate, ca. 1 mm. Male flowers 2- or 3-fascicled; pedicel 1-1.5 mm; sepals 4, oblong, ca. 3 mm, tomentulose; stamens ca. 100. Female inflorescences unbranched, 10-20 cm; peduncle 2-5 cm, ca. 3 mm thick; bracts sublanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm. Female flowers: pedicel ca. 1.5 mm; sepals 5 or 6, lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm, tomentose; ovary densely softly spiny, stellate-pilose; styles 3, free, ca. 3 mm, plumose. Infructescence erect. Fruiting pedicel ca. 1.5 mm; capsule ca. 1.5 cm in diam., densely softly spiny, brownish, ca. 5 mm, stellate-pilose. Seeds subglobose, blackish, ca. 5 mm in diam., verruculose. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

Himalaya (Nepal to Bhutan), Assaln, S.W. China (Yunnan).

Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Myanmar, Nepal].

1700-2400 m

Mountain valleys or slopes, thickets; 1700-2500 m.

Mallotus japonicus (Linnaeus f.) Müller Argoviensis var. floccosus (Müller Argoviensis) S. M. Hwang; M. oreophilus Müller Argoviensis var. floccosus Müller Argoviensis; M. tenuifolius Pax var. floccosus (Müller Argoviensis) Croizat.