Description: Trees or shrubs, monoecious.
Leaves alternate, subverticillate or subopposite, entire.
Flowers axillary, solitary or in clusters with several males and females together, all pedunculate. Sepals 5. Petals 5, sometimes reduced or absent. Male flowers with 3–6 stamens, a sterile ovary sometimes present. Female flowers with a 3-locular ovary; 2 ovules in each loculus; styles free or fused at base.
Fruit a lobed capsule, indehiscent.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 35 species, South-East Asia, Malesia, Australia. Australia: 5 species, Qld, N.S.W.
Formerly in Euphorbiaceae.
Text by T.A. James & G.J. Harden, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 1: 393 (1990), in Euphorbiaceae
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed May 2017)
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Abaxial leaf surface pale green and mat-glaucous, often drying brown; male flower pedicles 10–20 mm long, petals c. 1.5 mm long by 0.5–0.7 mm wide | Actephila grandifolia |
| Abaxial leaf surface pale green-yellow and glossy, often drying pale brown; male flower pedicels 1.5–5 mm long, petals 2–2.5 mm long, 0.8–1.3 mm wide | Actephila lindleyi |
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