Omphalea
(from omphalos, the navel; alluding to the umbilicated anthers). SYNS. Duchola, Hebecocca, Hecatea, Omphalandria, Ronnowia. ORD. Euphorbiaceae. A genus comprising eight species of stove, climbing or twining shrubs, rarely diffuse trees; one is a native of Madagascar, and the rest are tropical American. Flowers cymulose, monoecious, apetalous; cymes composed wholly of male flowers, or with one female in the centre, and disposed in terminal panicles. Fruit thick, fleshy externally. Leaves alternate, often large, entire, penniveined, and often three to five-nerved at base; petioles biglandulose at apex. O. triandra, the only species yet introduced, thrives in a mixture of peat and loam. Propagated by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat.
O. triandra (three-anthered). fl. with three anthers. fr. yellow, globose, furrowed, 1 1/2in. in diameter. l. oblong, oval, or cordate, glabrous. h. 12ft. Jamaica, &c., 1763. Diffuse tree. A juice is extracted from this species, which turns black in drying, and is said to be used in making ink, or as glue; the nuts, after the poisonous embryo is extracted, are edible. (L. B. C. 519.)