兰屿肉桂 lan yu rou gui

Evergreen trees, ca. 15 m tall. Dry bark, branches, and leaves almost unscented. Branchlets brown, terete, glabrous. Leaves opposite or subopposite; petiole red-brown or brown, ca. 1.5 cm, concave-convex; leaf blade green when fresh but gray-green when dry, opaque abaxially and shiny adaxially, ovate to oblong-ovate, 8-11(-14) × 4-5.5(-9) cm, leathery, glabrous on both surfaces, triplinerved, basal lateral veins arising ca. 1 cm above leaf base, evanescent at 3/4 of leaf blade or inconspicuously anastomosing, sometimes each with an additional vein outside, veinlets conspicuous on both surfaces, foveolate, base rounded, apex acute. Flowers unknown. Infructescence 3-5 cm. Fruit ovoid, ca. 1.4 × 1 cm; perianth cup in fruit cupuliform, glabrous, shortly crenate on margin; fruit stalk ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Fr. Aug-Sep.

● Forests. S Taiwan (Lan Yu).

Cinnamomum kotoense is very closely related to C. myrianthum Merrill, from the Philippines. The latter species differs in the shape of its leaf blade (oblong or elliptic-oblong) and in its longer infructescence (up to 15 cm), so it is reasonable to regard these as distinct species.