红皮木姜子 hong pi mu jiang zi

Evergreen shrubs or small trees, up to 6 m tall. Young branchlets glabrous or densely pubescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 5-10 mm, glabrous or densely pubescent; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, 3.5-7 × 1.5-3 cm, glabrous on both surfaces or sparsely pubescent and along veins villous abaxially and along veins gray-yellow pubescent adaxially, abaxially glaucous, lateral veins 8-12 pairs, base cuneate, obtuse, or rounded, apex acute, acuminate, or caudate-acuminate. Umbels axillary, solitary, 3-5-flowered; peduncle 2-7 mm. Male flowers: pedicel short; perianth segments 6, sometimes 3 or 4, broadly ovate or rotund; fertile stamens 9, sometimes 7 or 12; filaments pubescent, of 3rd whorls each with 2 sessile cordate glands at base; rudimentary pistil ovoid, glabrous. Fruit oblong 6-7 × 4-4.5 mm, seated on discoid perianth tube; fruiting pedicel ca. 2 mm, glabrous or densely pubescent. Fl. May, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Mixed forests on moist mountain slopes or mountaintops; 1300-2300 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.

This species is extremely variable and unstable in the number of stamens and perianth segments.

Lower Taxa

• Litsea pedunculata var. pedunculata
• Litsea pedunculata var. pubescens Yen C. Yang & P. H. Huang