红辣槁树 hong la gao shu

Small trees, 3-9 m tall, ca. 16 cm d.b.h. Branchlets terete, glabrous, young ones ca. 1 mm in diam., dark brown pubescent. Leaves opposite; petiole 1.5-2 cm, brown pubescent when young but blackish pubescent when mature; leaf blade glaucous and shiny adaxially, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 7-9 × 2.5-4 cm, rigidly leathery, very densely and evenly finely brown pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially, trinerved or inconspicuously triplinerved, midrib and basal veins elevated abaxially, very impressed adaxially, axils of lateral veins dome-shaped abaxially, transverse veins parallel, very fine, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, margin involute, entire, apex conspicuously acuminate. Panicle terminal, ca. 8 cm, densely and evenly finely brown pubescent, branched from base; branches opposite, lowest one ca. 7 cm, apex of branch bearing a 2- or 3-flowered cyme. Pedicels 2-3 mm. Perianth lobes oblong-elliptic to oblong-ovate, ca. 5 mm, pubescent outside, apex rounded. Fertile stamens 9; filaments 1-1.2 mm, finely pubescent, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 glands, others glandless; anthers ellipsoid, as long as filament, apex rounded, all 4-celled. Staminodes 3, ca. 1 mm. Ovary glabrous; style ca. 2 mm. Fruit unknown. Fl. May.

● Shady mountain slopes. C Guangdong.