柔弱润楠 rou ruo run nan

Persea gracillima (Chun) Kostermans.

Small trees, to 4 m tall; trunk to 10 cm d.b.h., glabrous throughout. Branchlets slender. Petiole 10-12 mm; leaf blade abaxially grayish brown and glaucous, adaxially grayish green, oblong, somewhat rhombic, 10-11 × 2.5-3.5 cm, thinly leathery, midrib slender, abaxially elevated, adaxially concave, lateral veins 10-12 pairs, together with reticulate veinlets slender on both surfaces but distinctly visible by lens, base cuneate, apex caudate-acuminate. Flowers unknown. Infructescences very short, solitary in leaf axil. Fruit subglobose, ca. 1.3 cm in diam. (immature); persistent perianth lobes yellowish, patent, oblanceolate, subequal, ca. 5 × 1.2 mm, papery; fruiting pedicel shorter than petiole, ca. 5 mm, upper parts slightly thickened.

● Dense broad-leaved forests. N Guangxi.

This is a very rare species apparently known only from the type gathering.