These monoecious, evergreen trees are perennials or semiperennials. These are large trees, 15–40 m (49–131 ft) tall, with spreading, drooping, and rising branches.
The leaves are alternate, lobate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate with minute stipules. They are pubescent on both sides when young, but in a later stage they become glabrous.
The inflorescence consists of terminal plumes of small, creamy white, bell-shaped, fragrant flowers, branching from the base. The flowers are usually bisexual, with a solitary pistillate flower at the end of each major axis. The lateral cymes are staminate. There are five or six imbricate petals. The staminate flowers are mostly longer and thinner than the pistillate flowers, with 17–32 glabrous stamens in four whorls. The pistillate flowers have a superior ovary.
The fruits are rather large drupes with a fleshy exocarp and a thin, woody endocarp. They vary in shape, according to the numbers of developed locules. They contain oleiferous, poisonousseeds.
Some deciduous Chinese species are now classified under a separate genus Vernicia.
The name Aleurites is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἄλευρον meaning "wheaten flour" or "ground meal",[7] because of the appearance of the lower surface of the leaf.
The most widespread species is the candlenut (Aleurites moluccanus), occurring from tropical Asia and the Pacific, from IndiatoChina and Polynesia, Australia and New Zealand. Some botanists only recognize two species, A. moluccanus and A. rockinghamensis.
Aleurites moluccanus (L.) Willd. – Indian walnut, candlenut tree, country walnut, aburagiri, ama - most of genus range
^Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1–1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Stuppy, W.; P.C. van Welzen; P. Klinratana; M.C.T. Posa (1999). "Revision of the genera Aleurites, Reutealis and Vernicia (Euphorbiaceae)". Blumea. 44: 73–98.
