Key to the species of Desplatsia

1. Shrub or small tree usually <2–3 m tall, DBH <10 cm when flowering or fruiting; mature leaves papery, usually drying green, petiole distinctly inflated in the upper part, leaf blade with distinctively acuminate leaf tip, margin obscurely toothed or with very few small, acute, forward-pointing teeth ................................................................................................................... D. subericarpa Bocq.

– Tree> 2–3 m tall, DBH> 10 cm when flowering or fruiting; mature leaves sub-leathery, usually drying greenish-brownish or brown, petiole not distinctly inflated in upper part, with acute to only slightly acuminate leaf tip, and either coarsely and irregularly toothed, sometimes with large (up to 1 cm), jagged teeth, or regularly toothed with teeth generally smaller than 1 cm ............................ 2

2. Twigs with dense, long, coarse, orange hairs; upper and lower side of mature leaves orange pubescent, lower side with evenly spaced, soft, stellate hairs easily visible using a 10× lens; fruits covered by orange hairs when young, soon becoming almost glabrous with remnants of hairs staying visible .......................................................... D. chrysochlamys (Mildbr. & Burret) Mildbr. & Burret

– Twigs glabrous or almost glabrous; upper side and lower side of mature leaves glabrous or almost glabrous, or lower side covered with small, dense, stellate hairs, which are difficult to see using a 10× lens; fruits glabrous when mature ............................................................................................. 3

3 Tree usually <10 m tall, DBH (5–) 10–40 cm; mature leaves with irregular, large (up to 1 cm), jagged teeth, leaves mostly glabrous below apart from some scattered single or stellate hairs, petiole almost glabrous with rusty indumentum, blade often (but not always) with domatia formed of hairs on underside of leaves in nerve axils; pedicels thick, 2–6 mm long ....................................................... ......................................................................................... D. dewevrei (De Wild. & T.Durand) Burret

– Tree usually> 10 m tall, DBH 40–80 cm; mature leaves regularly toothed with teeth generally smaller than 1 cm, leaves with very small, dense, stellate hairs below, sometimes difficult to see with a 10× lens, petiole with both short and scattered long brown hairs, no domatia; pedicels slender, 8–20 mm long .................................................................................................. D. mildbraedii Burret