台湾香叶树 tai wan xiang ye shu

Benzoin akoense (Hayata) Kamikoti.

Evergreen shrubs or small trees. Bark dark brown. Branchlets rather densely pubescent, later deciduous and glabrate. Leaves alternate; petiole 5-12 mm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate, narrowly elliptic, or obovate, 3-5 × 2-3.5 cm, leathery, laxly pubescent with rather dense pubescence along midrib abaxially, glabrous and shiny adaxially, pinninerved, midrib convex abaxially and concave adaxially, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, reticulate veins distinct, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, apex acute. Umbels axillary, not pedunculate, 5- or 6-flowered. Male flowers: pedicels 1-2 mm; perianth tube obconic, ca. 1 mm, densely brown pubescent; tepals 6, ovate, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm, slightly small in inner whorl, laxly pubescent at dorsal keel and at base inside; stamens 9, nearly equal to length of tepal; filament glabrous, equal to length of anther, 2-glandular at base in 3rd whorl; glands broadly reniform, several cornute; reduced pistil ca. 1.2 mm; ovary ovate, ca. 0.5 mm; stigma disciform. Female flowers: pedicels ca. 0.6 mm, densely brown pubescent; perianth tube obconic, ca. 0.6 mm, densely brown pubescent; tepals 6, triangular, ca. 1 mm; reduced stamens fasciated, ca. 0.6 mm, 2-glandular at filament in 3rd whorl; ovary obovate, ca. 1.5 mm. Fruits subglobose, red at maturity.

● Thickets; low to medium elevations. Taiwan.