毛背花楸 mao bei hua qiu

Aria aronioides (Rehder) H. Ohashi & H. Iketani; Micromeles aronioides (Rehder) Kovanda & Challice.

Shrubs or trees, 4–12(–15) m tall. Branchlets purplish brown when young, purplish black when old, terete, glabrous when old, sparsely lenticellate; buds ovoid, apex acute or ± obtuse; scales few, brown or purplish brown, glabrous. Leaves simple; petiole 5–10 mm; leaf blade pale grayish green abaxially, dark green adaxially, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or elliptic-obovate, 6–12 × 2.5–6 cm, lateral veins 7–10 pairs, branched and anastomosing toward margin, abaxially sparsely tomentose along raised veins, glabrous when old, adaxially glabrous, sparsely glandular along somewhat impressed midvein, base cuneate, margin sharply but minutely serrate, entire near base. Compound corymbs terminal, 3.5–5 cm in diam. and nearly as long, densely flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous. Pedicel 2–5 mm. Flowers 7–8 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, glabrous. Sepals ovate-triangular, sparsely pubescent along margin, soon glabrate, apex acute. Petals white, irregularly ovate or narrowly ovate, 2.5–3.5 × 2–3 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens ca. 20, nearly as long as or slightly longer than petals; anthers brown, broadly ovate. Styles 2 or 3, rarely 4, 3–3.5 mm, ca. as long as stamens or slightly shorter, glabrous, connate basally. Fruit red, ovoid, 0.9–1.1 cm × 8–10 mm, glabrous, 2- or 3-loculed, with an annular scar; seeds brown, obovoid, compressed. Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Aug–Oct.

Coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests on slopes, stream side mixed forests; 1000--3600 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, W Sichuan, W Yunnan [N Myanmar].