肥荚红豆 fei jia hong dou

Ruddia fordiana (Oliver) Yakovlev.

Trees, to 17 m, to 20 cm d.b.h. Bark of stems dark gray, with shallow longitudinal stripes. Young branches and leaves densely appressed rusty brown pubescent, becoming sparsely hairy or glabrescent. Leaves imparipinnate, 19-40 cm; petiole 3.5-7 cm; rachis 5.5-15.5 cm, prolonged 3-15 mm below ter­minal leaflet; leaflets (5-)7-9(-13); petiolule 6-8 mm, grooved, rusty pubescent, becoming glabrate; blades obovate-lanceolate or obovate-elliptic, rarely elliptic, terminal leaflet larger, 6-20 × 1.5-7 cm, thinly leathery, base cuneate or suborbicular, apex acute or caudate; midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 11 pairs, angled 40° with midvein, lateral veins and veinlets inconspicuous on both surfaces, scattered rusty brown appressed pubescent or glabrous abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Panicles terminal on young branches, 15-26 cm; peduncle and pedicel densely appressed rusty pubescent. Pedicel 6-12 mm; bractlets 2, at pedicel apex, lanceolate, 3-5 mm, densely ap­pressed rusty brown pubescent. Flowers 2-2.5 cm. Calyx light brown-green, 1.5-2 cm; teeth oblong-lanceolate, slightly obtuse, upper 2/3 of upper pair connate, densely appressed rusty pu­bescent; tube short. Corolla purplish red, ca. 1.5 cm; standard rounded, cucullate, upper margin strongly inflexed, yellow spotted subcentrally, claw short, thick, compressed; keel similar to wings, elliptic-obovate, apex obtuse, claw short. Stamens unequal, all functional; filaments basally thickly compressed. Ovary flattened, densely appressed rusty brown silky pubes­cent; ovules usually 4; style incurved, glabrescent. Legumes semicircular or oblong, 5-12 × 5-6.8 cm, apex obliquely beaked, stipe compressed, 5-10 mm, convex at seed; valves woody, dehiscent, ca. 2 mm thick, externally yellow pubescent or glabrescent, internally glossy, often whitish, stained reddish, septum absent, slightly thickened at margin, tip reflexed; calyx persistent. Seeds 1-4, large, oblong, obtuse at ends, 2.5-3.3 × 1.7-2.7 cm, slightly flattened; testa red or red-purple, fleshy, becoming thin and fragile when dry; hilum suborbicular, 3-4 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Nov.

Valleys, roadsides on mountain slopes, streamsides in mixed open forests; 100-1400 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, S to SE Yunnan [Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].