Mosquitoxylum Krug & Urb.

Description:
Polygamodioecious (androdioecious) trees. Leaves evergreen (more or less), alternate, imparipinnate; leaflets opposite or subopposite, short-petiolulate, entire. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary panicles with spicate branches. Flowers sessile or short-pedicellate, each subtended by 3 deltoid bracts; perianth 5-parted, imbricate; corolla greenish white, or cream-colored; androecium haplostemonous; pistillode reduced; staminodes in female flower very reduced; disk glabrous, 5-lobed; carpels 3; style short, distally 3-branched, excentric; stigmas 3; ovule sublateral. Drupe obliquely ovoid, compressed, 1-locular; exocarp red, glabrous.

A single species, M. jamaicense, southern Mexico south to northwestern Ecuador and Jamaica. Morphological and molecular evidence suggests that Mosquitoxylum is closely related to Rhus.

Original Publication: Mosquitoxylum Krug & Urb., Notizbl. Königl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 1: 78 (1895)

Bibliography: F.A. Barkley & M.J. Reed, Am. Mid. Nat. 24: 666–679 (1940), rev.

Web Links:
Tropicos –  Mosquitoxylum
The Plant List – Mosquitoxylum

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