夏蜡梅 xia la mei

Sinocalycanthus chinensis W. C. Cheng & S. Y. Chang, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 9: 135. 1964.

Shrubs 1-3 m tall, deciduous. Bark glaucous or grayish brown, with convex lenticels. Branchlets glabrous or puberulous when young; buds hidden by base of petiole. Petiole 1.2-1.8 cm, yellowish hispidulous, glabrescent; leaf blade broadly ovate-elliptic, ovate, or obovate, 11-26 × 8-16 cm, both surfaces shiny, abaxially brown hispidulous but glabrescent, adaxially scabrous and glabrous, base broadly cuneate and slightly asymmetric, margin entire or irregularly serrulate, apex acute. Flowers terminal, solitary, 4.5-7 cm in diam. Pedicel 2-4.5 cm; bracteoles 5-7, deciduous, scarred on pedicels after dropping. Tepals distinctly dimorphic; outer tepals 10-14, white flushed slightly pink toward margin, obovate to obovate-spatulate, 1.4-3.6 × 1.2-2.6 cm, apex rounded; inner tepals 7-16, pale yellow becoming white toward base, elliptic, erect, 11-17 × 9-13 mm, apex rounded and incurved. Stamens 16-19, ca. 8 mm; anthers pubescent; connective apex acute; staminodes 11 or 12, puberulous. Carpels 11 or 12, with silky hair. Pseudocarp campanulate, 3-4.5 × 1.5-3 cm, pubescent, apex slightly constricted, apical appendages 14-16 and lanceolate-conical. Achenes oblong, 10-12 × 5-8 mm, with silky trichomes. Fl. May, fr. Oct. 2n = 22*.

● Under trees near streams in mountainous areas; 600-1000 m. N Zhejiang (Lin’an, Tiantai).

The name Calycanthus chinensis was not validly published by W. C. Cheng and S. Y. Chang (Sci. Silvae Sin. 8(1). 1963) because they cited both a flowering and a fruiting type representing two gatherings (Vienna Code, Art. 37.2). When the same authors republished the species in Sinocalycanthus, they cited a single type, thus validly publishing a new species name in Sinocalycanthus rather than transferring it from Calycanthus to Sinocalycanthus. Subsequent Chinese authors used the name S. chinensis until P. T. Li published the species as C. chinensis in FRPS, thus transferring the species back to the genus in which it was originally proposed (although not validly published) by W. C. Cheng and S. Y. Chang.