四川山胡椒 si chuan shan hu jiao

Actinodaphne setchuenensis (Gamble) C. K. Allen; Benzoin setchuenense (Gamble) Rehder.

Shrubs evergreen, ca. 2.5 m tall. Bark gray-brown. Branchlets gray-green, many lenticellate, brown or black-brown when dry. Buds conical, ca. 5 mm; bud scales glabrous. Leaves alternate, usually congregated at apex of branch, fasciated; leaf blade 9-12(-17) × 1.4-1.5(-2.8) cm, blue-green and yellow pubescent abaxially, densely pubescent on veins, green and glabrous adaxially, brown-yellow abaxially and black-brown adaxially when dry, pinninerved, lateral veins (10-)15-17(-21) pairs, base cuneate, apex acuminate. Umbels inserted at both sides of leaf bud; peduncles 4-5 mm, puberulent; involucral bracts 4, glabrous, persistent in bloom, 5-flowered inside. Male flowers: pedicels 3-4 mm, pedicels and perianth tubes villous; tepals oblanceolate, ca. 1.7 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in inner whorl, glabrous; stamens ca. 2 mm in 1st and 2nd whorls, ca. 1.5 mm in 3rd whorl; filaments slender, glabrous, 2-glandular on upper part of base in 3rd whorl; glands funnelform, stipitate; reduced pistil small; ovary ellipsoid, less than 0.5 mm; style and stigma thickly mucro-shaped. Female flowers: pedicels ca. 3 mm, pedicels and perianth tubes villous; tepals fasciated, glabrous, ca. 1.5 × 0.3 mm in outer whorl, ca. 1.2 × 0.2 mm in inner whorl, sometimes becoming reduced-stamenlike with a clavate gland inserted at base; stamens of 1st and 2nd whorl ca. 1.5 mm, stamens of 3rd whorl ca. 1.2 mm, 2-glandular above base of filament; glands funnelform, long stipitate; anthers of reduced stamens fasciated, slightly broad at apex, glabrous; pistil glabrous; ovary ellipsoid, ca. 0.7 mm; style ca. 1.5 mm; stigma disciform. Fruit 1, ellipsoid, ca. 2 cm × 8 mm; stipes ca. 5 mm, glabrous; hypocarpium enveloped above base of fruit, ca. 6 mm in diam. Fl. Feb, fr. Sep.

● Mountain slopes, under sparse forests; ca. 1500 m. Guizhou, Sichuan.