Mu Oil Tree

The seeds are a source of drying oils, used in paints and varnishes.

Trees evergreen, up to 20 m tall, usually dioecious; bark brown; branches glabrous, with sparsely elevated lenticels. Petiole 7-17 cm, glabrous, apex with 2 stalked and cupular glands; leaf blade broadly ovate, 8-20 × 6-18 cm, pubescent on both surfaces when young, only abaxially pubescent along base of nerves at maturity, base cordate to truncate, margin entire or 2-5-fid, apex acute to acuminate, sinus usually with cupular glands. Inflorescences produced with new leaves, usually unisexual. Male flowers: calyx ca. 10 mm, 2- or 3-fid, glabrous; petals obovate, 2-3 cm, base clawed, white or purple-red at base and with purple-red nerve-stripes; stamens 8-10; filaments hairy, outer filaments free, inner filaments connate at and below middle. Female flowers: calyx and petals as in male; ovary densely brown pubescent, 3-locular; styles 3, bipartite. Drupes ovoid, 3-5 cm in diam., longitudinally 3-angular, between angles with sparsely reticulate wrinkles, 3-seeded. Seeds compressed globose; seed coat thicker, verrucose. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; cultivated in Japan].

Open forests; below 1600 m.

Aleurites cordata Gagnepain; A. montana (Loureiro) Wilson; A. vernicia (Corrêa) Hasskarl; Dryandra vernicia Corrêa; Elaeococca vernicia (Corrêa) A. Jussieu.