Mallotus (plant)
genus of plants
Mallotus is a genus of the spurge family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1790. Two species (M. oppositifolius and M. subulatus) are found in tropical Africa and Madagascar, while all others are found in East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, eastern Australia, and certain islands of the western Pacific. The genus has about 150 species of dioecious trees or shrubs.
Fossil record
Mallotus macrofossils have been recovered from the late Zanclean stage of Pliocene sites in Pocapaglia, Italy.
Uses
Mallotus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Endoclita malabaricus. The Kamala tree (Mallotus philippensis) has seed capsules which are the source of a yellow dye (Kamala dye) and were formerly a herbal remedy.
Species
Source:
Formerly included
Source:
Some species have been moved to other genera, namely: Acalypha Aleurites Blumeodendron Chondrostylis Cleidion Croton Discocleidion Endospermum Hancea Lasiococca Macaranga Melanolepis Neoboutonia Plukenetia Ptychopyxis Rockinghamia Spathiostemon Sumbaviopsis.
The public source identifies “Mallotus (plant)” as genus of plants. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mallotus, plant and genus.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1205104. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1790.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mallotus (plant)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.