白颜树 bai yan shu

Gironniera chinensis Bentham; G. nervosa Planchon var. subaequalis (Planchon) Kurz.

Trees, 10-20(-30) m tall, d.b.h. 25-50(-100) cm, dioecious. Bark gray to dark gray, smooth. Branchlets yellowish green or brown, covered with hirsute hairs. Stipules opposite, lanceolate, 1-2.7 cm, abaxially strigose. Petiole 4-12 mm, strigose; leaf blade elliptic to elliptic-oblong, 10-25 × 4.5-10 cm, leathery, abaxially green, scabridulous, and with appressed hairs on major veins, adaxially pale green and glabrous, base ± symmetric, margin bluntly serrate or subentire, apex shortly caudate-acuminate; secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein. Rachis sparsely strigose. Male inflorescences highly branched. Female inflorescences racemose. Male flowers: ca. 2 mm in diam., tepals and anthers strigose. Infructescences with 1-5 drupes. Drupes subsessile or short-stalked, broadly ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 4-8 mm in diam., laterally compressed; perianth and style persistent; endocarp reddish orange when mature, with 2 obtuse ribs. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. most of the year.

Valleys, beside streams; 100-800 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

The wood is used for furniture and other purposes, the bark fiber is used for manufacturing staple rayon, and the leaves are used medicinally.