Croton section Cleodora (Klotzsch) Baillon (1858: 369)

Caruzo, Maria Beatriz Rossi & Cordeiro, Inês, 2013, Taxonomic revision of Croton section Cleodora (Euphorbiaceae), Phytotaxa 121 (1), pp. 1-41 : 2-3

Croton section Cleodora (Klotzsch) Baillon (1858: 369) ≡ Cleodora Klotzsch (1841: 196) . Type:— Cleodora

sellowiana Klotzsch (1841: 197) [= Croton sphaerogynus Baillon (1864: 326) ].

Croton section Stolidanthus Baillon (1864: 323) . Type:— Croton heterocalyx Baillon (1864: 324) (lectotype designated by Webster 1993: 800).

Trees or shrubs, rarely climbing, monoecious, generally laticiferous; latex clear to reddish; covered with appressed-stellate, stellate-lepidote, or lepidote subentire trichomes, rarely stellate or multiradiate trichomes. Leaves entire, alternate, with a pair of basilaminar ( Fig. 1E, detail) or acropetiolar ( Fig. 2A, detail) glands, usually sessile, rarely stipitate. Inflorescences terminal, rarely axillary, sometimes apparently branched (i.e., some branchlets just below each inflorescence produce other inflorescences simultaneously, resembling a unique branched inflorescence) basal cymules bisexual, rarely unisexual or falsely unisexual. Staminate flowers dichlamydeous, campanulate, rarely subcampanulate, valvate or slightly imbricate aestivation, sepals usually united up to half of their length, stamens 15–25. Pistillate flowers monochlamydeous, rarely apparently monochlamydeous (with petals reduced to ovoid or ellipsoid glands), slightly zygomorphic or actinomorphic, sessile or pedicellate, campanulate, flask-shaped or urn-shaped, imbricate or quincuncial aestivation ( Fig. 2B), styles 3, 4-fid (12 terminal arms) or multifid (> 12 terminal arms), united at the base or further up, usually forming a conspicuous “crown” or a column ( Fig. 8I). Fruits globose, ellipsoid or subglobose (usually trigonal; Fig. 5H), with calyx persistent, sometimes inflated ( Fig. 7L) and strongly accrescent. Seeds with a small caruncle.

Croton section Cleodora is exclusively Neotropical, with 18 species disjunctly distributed between Mexico, Central America, north and northwest South America, and eastern Brazil. The main center of diversity of the section is located in eastern Brazil, where 12 of the 18 species belonging to the section occur. Species of C. section Cleodora , as most Croton species , are important elements of secondary vegetation, occupying forests borders or clearings in pluvial or seasonally dry forests.

Caruzo et al. (2011), in their molecular phylogenetic study, recognized two subsections within Croton section Cleodora , C. subsection Sphaerogyni Caruzo (2011: 204) and C. subsection Spruceani Caruzo (2011: 204) .