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<big>''[[Anthostema madagascariense]]'' Baill.</big>

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Anthostema madagascariense'' (PROTA)}}

:Protologue: Étude Euphorb.: 59–60, 544, t. 5(4–7) (1858).

:Family: Euphorbiaceae

== Origin and geographic distribution ==

The wood is extremely abrasive in sawing and should be sawn before drying with a coarsely toothed, slow-moving blade and with a high transition speed. In addition the latex sticks to the blade, requiring continuous watering. The wood is very difficult to work. It is easy to nail; it holds nails and screws well. It is easy to glue, paint, varnish and wax. It may be suitable for veneer production by peeling if its abrasiveness does not prove to be excessive. The wood is not durable, with little resistance against fungi and insects, and requires preservative treatment at all stages of processing. It is very easy to impregnate with preservatives. The latex may cause eye problems. The seeds are toxic.

Evergreen, monoecious shrub to medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall, with abundant white latex in all parts; bole branchless for up to 12 m or more, generally straight and regular, up to 70 cm in diameter; bark surface densely fissured, reddish to blackish. Leaves alternate, simple and entire; stipules small, soon falling; petiole up to 1.5 cm long, grooved; blade elliptical to obovate, 5–13 cm × 2.5–5 cm, cuneate at base, acuminate to obtuse at apex, leathery, glabrous, pinnately veined with 10–15 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence an axillary cyme with at apex of each cyme-branch a common involucre composed of 4 small partly fused bracts with glandular margins, enclosing a female flower surrounded by involucres, each containing several male flowers. Flowers unisexual; male flowers with short pedicel, 3–4-toothed perianth and a single stamen; female flowers short, stout pedicel, 3–4-lobed perianth, ovary superior, glabrous, 3-celled, styles short, spreading. Fruit a deeply 3-lobed capsule c. 2 cm in diameter, green, turning brown at dehiscence, with persistent style, 3-seeded. Seeds ovoid, c. 12 mm long, laterally compressed, brownish, shiny.

== Ecology ==

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