中国无忧花 zhong guo wu you hua

Saraca chinensis Merrill & Chun.

Trees, 5-20 m tall. Trunk ca. 25 cm d.b.h. Petiolules 7-12 mm; leaflets 5 or 6 pairs, slightly purplish red when young, pendulous, narrowly elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, or narrowly obovate, 15-35 × 5-12 cm, subleathery, lateral veins 8-11 pairs, lowest pair often smaller, base cuneate, apex acuminate, acute, or obtuse. Inflorescence axillary, larger; rachis hairy or gla­brous; involucre caducous, broadly ovate, large, hairy; bracts caducous or late deciduous, ovate, lanceolate, or oblong, 1.5-5 × 0.6-2 cm, lowest one largest, gradually smaller upward, hairy or glabrous; bracteoles equal to bracts in shape but much smaller. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, yellow, base of calyx lobes, disk, stamens, and style becoming red; pedicels shorter than calyx tube, not articulate. Calyx tube 1.5-3 cm; lobes 4(-6), oblong, ciliate. Stamens 8-10 including 1 or 2 often re­duced to subulate; filaments exserted; anthers oblong, 3-4 mm. Ovary slightly curved, glabrous or hairy along sutures and stalk. Legume brownish, compressed, 22-30 × 5-7 cm, valves twisted. Seeds 5-9, unequal in shape, shallowly depressed sul­cate at middle of both surfaces. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Oct.

Dense or sparse forests, riversides, along valleys, by streams; 200-1000 m. Guangdong, SE and SW Guangxi, SE Yunnan [Laos, Vietnam].

This is a fine parasitifer plant, which can be used for breeding lac insects. The bark is used medicinally for relieving rheumatism and menorrhagia. The flowers are large and showy, and the trees are often cultivated ornamentally.