山鸡椒 shan ji jiao

Deciduous shrubs or small trees, 8-10 m tall. Branchlets glabrous or sericeous-pubescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 6-20 mm, glabrous; leaf blade lanceolate, oblong, or elliptic, 4-11 × 1.1-2.4 cm, glabrous on both surfaces or sericeous-pubescent abaxially, glaucous and sericeous-pubescent when young abaxially, lateral veins 6-16 pairs, base cuneate, apex acuminate or acute. Umbels solitary or clustered, 4-6-flowered, flowering before leaves or with leaves; peduncle 2-10 mm, reflexed or straight, glabrous or sericeous-pubescent. Male flowers: perianth segments 6, broadly ovate; fertile stamens 9; filaments hairy below middle, of 3rd whorls each with 2 shortly stipitate glands at base; rudimentary pistil glabrous. Fruit subglobose, ca. 5 mm in diam., black at maturity; fruiting pedicel 2-4 mm. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Jul-Aug.

Sunny slopes, thickets, sparse forests, roadsides, watersides; 300-3200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [S and SE Asia].

Lower Taxa

• Litsea cubeba var. cubeba
• Litsea cubeba var. formosana (Nakai) Yen C. Yang & P. H. Huang