Aleurites

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Aleurites

Aleurites is a small arborescent genus of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, the Pacific and South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, belonging to the spurge family Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbiaceae

The Spurge family is a large family of flowering plants with 300 genera and around 7,500 species. Most are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are also shrubs or trees....
.

These monoecious

Plant sexuality

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s are perennials

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
or semi-perennials. These are large trees, tall, with spreading drooping and rising branches.

The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are alternate, lobate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate with minute stipules. They are pubescent on both sides when young, but in a later stage they become glabrous.

The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches....
consists of terminal plumes of small, creamy white bell-shaped fragrant flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s, branching from the base.

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Encyclopedia

Aleurites is a small arborescent genus of flowering plant

Flowering plant

Asia

South America

Euphorbiaceae

Plant sexuality

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s are perennials

Perennial plant

Leaf

The inflorescence

Inflorescence

Flower

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
, with a solitary pistillate flower at the end of each major axis. The lateral cymes are staminate. There are five or six imbricate petals. The staminate flowers are mostly longer and thinner than the pistillate flowers, with 17-32 glabrous stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the male organ of a flower. Each stamen generally has a stalk called the filament , and, on top of the filament, an anther , and pollen sacs, called sporangium....
s in four whorls. The pistillate flowers have a superior ovary

Ovary (plants)

In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the carpel which holds the ovule and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals....
.

The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s are rather large drupe

Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovary....
s with a fleshy exocarp

Fruit anatomy

A fruit in botany refers to a mature ovary . In fleshy fruits, the outer, often edible, layer is the pericarp, which is the tissue that develops from the ovary wall of the flower and surrounds the seeds....
and a thin, woody endocarp

Fruit anatomy

Locule

A locule is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism .In plants, the term locule usually refers to a chamber within an Ovary ....
s. They contain oleiferous, poison

Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are Chemical substance that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ous seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s.

The oil has been used as a paraffin

Paraffin

In chemistry, paraffin is the common name for the alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to the solids with n=20–40....
, lubricant

Lubricant

A lubricant is a substance introduced between two moving surfaces to reduce the friction between them, improving efficiency and reducing wear....
and as a constituent of varnish

Varnish

Varnish is a Transparency , hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a Turpentine substitute or solvent....
, paint

Paint

Paint is any liquid, liquifiable, or mastic composition which after application to a Substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film....
and soap

SOAP

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks....
. Once poisonous substances are removed, it can be used as a cooking oil

Cooking oil

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is liquid at room temperature.Some of the many different kinds of edible Vegetable fats and oilss include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil....

Some deciduous Chinese

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
species are now classified under a separate genus Vernicia
Vernicia

The genus Vernicia, commonly referred to as Tung or Tung-oil Tree, is a genus in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae, comprising three species, native to East Asia and Southeast Asia Asia....
.

The name Aleurites is derived from a Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
word meaning "wheaten flour", because of the appearance of the lower surface of the leaf.

Species

The most widespread species is the Candlenut

Candlenut

The Candlenut , is a flowering plant tree in the Euphorbia Family , Euphorbiaceae, also known as Candleberry, Indian walnut, Kemiri, Varnish tree or Kukui nut tree....
(), occurring from tropical Asia, the Pacific, from India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
to China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
. Some botanists only recognize two species, and .

Aleurites angustifolia - (New Caledonia
New Caledonia

New Caledonia , is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the subregion of Melanesia in the Oceania. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands....
)
Aleurites cordata - (China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
)
Aleurites erratica
Aleurites integrifolia - (New Caledonia)
Aleurites javanica - (Java)
Aleurites moluccana
Candlenut

The Candlenut , is a flowering plant tree in the Euphorbia Family , Euphorbiaceae, also known as Candleberry, Indian walnut, Kemiri, Varnish tree or Kukui nut tree....
- Indian walnut, candlenut tree, country walnut, aburagiri, ama

var. - (New Guinea
New Guinea

New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the List of islands by area, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period....
)
var. O.Deg.
Otto Degener

Otto Degener was a botanist and conservationist, and is recognized as the authority of the flora of the Hawai'ian Islands.Degener started his Flora Hawaiiensis in 1932, the first such flora published since 1888....
, I.Deg. & B.C.Stone
Benjamin Clemens Stone

Benjamin Clemens Masterman Stone was a United Kingdom?United States botanist.Stone was born in Shanghai, China to a British father, who worked for the government, and an American mother....
- (Hawaii
Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
)
var.
var. - (New Guinea, Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
)

Aleurites pentaphylla - (East Asia
East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either Geography or cultural terms. Geography and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km?, or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as Central Asia....
)
Aleurites remyi - (Hawaii)
Aleurites saponaria - (Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
)
Aleurites triloba - (Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands

The Pacific Ocean contains an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 islands . Those islands lying south of the tropic of Cancer but excluding Australia are traditionally grouped into three divisions: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia....
)

(now Vernicia fordii) - varnish tree, tung tree, tung oil tree (China)
(now Vernicia montana) - wood-oil tree, mu oil tree.

The genus is also known by the synonym Gaertn.