Ricinodendron Müll. Arg.

Dioecious trees with swollen trunk and stellate indumentum. Leaves alternate, long-petiolate, palmate; petioles sometimes glandular at the apex; leaf segments sometimes pseudopetiolulate, penninerved; stipules persistent, large, foliaceous, sessile, palmatifid. Inflorescences terminal or subterminal, paniculate, the male larger than the female; bracts linear-setaceous. Male flowers shortly pedicellate; buds globose; calyx lobes 4–5, imbricate; petals 5, imbricate, laterally coherent. Female flowers pedicellate; calyx lobes 5, imbricate; petals more or less as in the male flowers; ovary 2–3-locular, with 1 ovule per loculus. Fruit indehiscent, 2- or 3-lobed, usually wider than long; pericarp coriaceous; mesocarp fleshy; endocarps 2 (3), rarely 1 by abortion, distinct, each subglobose, 1-locular, 1-seeded, thinly woody, smooth. Seeds subglobose, cotyledons broad, flat, palminerved.

Worldwide: One species in tropical Africa, mainly in the Guineo-Congolian region.

Caprivi: 1 cultivated taxon.