软皮桂 ruan pi gui

Trees, 4-20 m tall. Branches terete, striate, scented; branchlets glabrous, angled. Leaves opposite or subopposite; petiole dark brown, 0.5-0.7(-1) cm, concave-convex, glabrous; leaf blade opaque and greenish white abaxially, shiny and brownish green when dry adaxially, elliptic-lanceolate, 5.5-11 × 1.6-4(-5) cm, papery, glabrous on both surfaces, triplinerved, midrib and basal lateral veins elevated on both surfaces, basal lateral veins arising at or up to 5 mm above leaf base, arcuate, evanescent under leaf apex, transverse veins undulate and parallel, ± conspicuous on both surfaces, veinlets irregularly reticulate, ± conspicuous abaxially, base acute or subrounded, apex acuminate. Panicle axillary on upper part of branchlet, subracemose, 3-5.5 cm; peduncle short, 2-3(-10) mm, peduncle and rachis sparsely puberulent; bracts ovate, ca. 2 mm, obtuse or acute, densely puberulent outside but sparsely so inside, bracteoles lanceolate-subulate, ca. 1 mm, acute, curved, with same indumentum as bracts. Pedicels 3-5(-7) mm, slender, sparsely pubescent. Flowers yellowish, ca. 5.5 mm, scented. Perianth sparsely gray puberulent outside and inside; perianth tube obconical, ca. 1.5 mm; perianth lobes oblong, subequal, ca. 4 × 2 mm, acute. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 3.5 mm (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or ca. 3.8 mm (of 3rd whorl); filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 shortly stalked cordate-reniform glands at middle; anthers of 1st and 2nd whorls oblong, a little shorter than filaments, but those of 3rd whorl ca. 1/2 as long as filaments, all 4-celled; cells introrse (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or extrorse (of 3rd whorl). Staminodes 3, triangular-cordate, ca. 0.8 mm, stalked; stalk ca. 1.2 mm, villous. Ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous; style slightly dilated, flexuous, ca. 1.5 mm; stigma discoid, irregularly lobed. Fruit ellipsoid, up to 1.3 × 0.7-0.8 cm, apiculate, glabrous; perianth cup in fruit ca. 3 mm, irregularly dentate. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. May.

Valley thickets, evergreen broad-leaved forests. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan [N Vietnam].