Heteropterys
(from heteros, various, and pteron, a wing; in allusion to the various forms of the winged samarae). ORD. Malpighiaceae. A genus comprising about eighty species of ornamental stove shrubs, rarely climbing, natives of tropical, or rarely extra-tropical, South America, and a few Western tropical African. Flowers small, very often paniculate or racemose. Leaves opposite, and, for the most part, entire, usually glandular beneath; petioles short; stipules inconspicuous. The two species described below are stove climbers, closely allied to Banisteria. (which see for cultivation). H. chrysophylla (golden-leaved). fl., corolla orange-coloured, becoming deeper and almost red in age; peduncles axillary, bearing an umbellate panicle. March. l. opposite, oval or oval-oblong, entire, somewhat acute and waved, coriaceous, dark green and glabrous above, and clothed with a golden-brown satiny pubescence beneath. (Brazil, 1833. (B. M. 3237.) H. purpurea(purple). fl. purple; racemes axillary and terminal, few-flowered. l. oval, smooth, glaucous beneath. Tropical America, 1759.