千里香 qian li xiang

Chalcas paniculata Linnaeus, Mant. Pl. 1: 68. 1767; Murraya omphalocarpa Hayata; M. paniculata var. omphalocarpa (Hayata) Tanaka.

Shrubs or trees, 1.8-12 m tall. Older branchlets grayish white to pale yellowish gray. Leaves 2-5-foliolate; petiolules less than 1 cm; leaflet blades mostly suborbicular to ovate to elliptic, 2-9 × 1.5-6 cm, margin entire or crenulate, apex rounded to acuminate. Inflorescences terminal or terminal and axillary. Flowers 5-merous, fragrant. Sepals ovate to lanceolate, to 2 mm, persistent in fruit. Petals white, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, to 2 cm. Stamens 10. Fruit orange to vermilion, narrowly ellipsoid or rarely ovoid, 1-2 × 0.5-1.4 cm. Seeds villous. Fl. Apr-Oct, fr. Apr-Feb. 2n = 18.

Thickets, montane forests; near sea level to 1300 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, Hainan, S Hunan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia, SW Pacific islands].

Murraya paniculata var. omphalocarpa was accepted by Chang (Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 3: 527. 1993).