四子柳 si zi liu

Pleiarina tetrasperma (Roxburgh) N. Chao & G. T. Gong; Salix disperma Roxburgh ex D. Don.

Trees to 10 m tall. Branches dull brown, glabrous; juvenile branchlets subglabrous. Buds narrowly ovoid, glabrous, apex acute. Stipules obliquely ovate, glandular, serrate; petiole 1-1.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade ovate to linear-lanceolate, 6-16 × 2.5-4.5 cm, abaxially pale, pruinose, adaxially green, glabrous, shiny, base cuneate or suborbicular, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Flowering serotinous. Male catkin ca. 10 cm × 6 mm; peduncle 1.5-2 cm, with 2 or 3 pilose leaflets; rachis densely pubescent or woolly; bracts elliptic, densely grayish white downy, apex acute or obtuse. Male flower: glands usually connected, much lobed, discoid; stamens usually 8, rarely 6 or 9; filaments downy proximally; anthers yellow, ovoid. Female catkin nearly as long as male catkin; bracts like those of male catkin, ca. as long as stipes. Female flower: adaxial gland slightly clasping stipe; ovary ovoid, ca. as long as or slightly shorter than stipe; style short, 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid, glabrous. Fl. Sep-Oct or Jan-Apr, fr. Nov-Dec or May. 2n = 76.

Below 1800 m. S Guangdong, Hainan, S Xizang, S and SW Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam]