Picrella trifoliata Baill.

Hartley, Thomas G. & Mabberley, David J., 2003, The identity of Picrella Baill. (Rutaceae) with a revision of the genus, Adansonia (3) 25 (2), pp. 251-259 : 256-257

3. Picrella trifoliata Baill.

Adansonia 10: 150, t. 10 (1871) & Hist. Pl. 4: 410, 497, fig. 474-477 (1873). — Helietta trifoliata (Baill.) Mabb. , Plant-book, corr. repr: 707 (1989), excl. syn. — Type: Anon. s.n., France, cult. Jardin des Plantes , Paris, 22 Sep. 1871, fl. Ƌ, said to be from Mexico (holo-, P-Baillon!) .

Shrub or tree 0.5-10 m high, dioecious, monoecious, or rarely polygamous (with Ƌ, ♀, and ♀ Ƌ flowers about equal in number); oil glands comparatively inconspicuous. Young branchlets glabrous to puberulent; terminal bud nearly glabrous to pubescent. Leaves trifoliolate and/or 1-bladed (unifoliolate and/or simple), 1.5-14 cm long; petiole glabrous to puberulent, exalate or alate (wings up to 0.5 mm wide on each side), 0.1-5 cm long; petiolules obsolete or up to 6 mm long; blades glabrous or nearly so, suborbicular to ovate, elliptic or narrowly so, obovate, oblanceolate, spatulate, or linear, 0.4-11 × 0.15-6 cm, base rounded to obtuse, acute, cuneate, or attenuate, margin irregularly crenulate or entire, apex rounded to obtuse or acuminate, usually retuse, secondary veins prominulous to obscure above, 4-12 per side.

Inflorescences glabrous to puberulent 1- to many-flowered, 0.24-8 cm long, up to 3 cm wide; pedicels 0.5-4 mm long (1.5-4.5 mm long in fruit). Flowers Ƌ, ♀, or rarely ♀ Ƌ; sepals glabrous to sparsely puberulent abaxially, 0.4- 1 mm long; petals green to white or yellow or pink, glabrous or nearly so, 1.5-2 mm long, usually deciduous in fruit; stamens 4, in Ƌ and ♀ Ƌ flowers 0.6-1.5 mm long, 0.3-1 mm long in ♀ flowers, filaments pilosulose or sparsely so adaxially or glabrous, anthers 0.15-0.4 mm long; gynoecium in ♀ and ♀ Ƌ flowers 0.7-1.5 mm long (0.3-0.75 mm long in Ƌ flowers), ovaries glabrous to pubescent, 1-ovuled, style glabrous, including stigma 0.4-1 mm long. Drupes at maturity white to yellow or pinkish white, glabrous or nearly so (abortive carpels glabrous to pubescent), 3-5 mm long, rarely beaked. Seeds solitary, 2.5-4 mm long.

Picrella trifoliata is widely and ± continuously variable, particularly in the distribution of indumentum, the complexity, size, and shape of leaves, and the complexity and size of inflorescences. Three variants seem to warrant formal recognition.