苦树 ku shu

Trees, deciduous, up to 10 m tall; bark purplish brown, smooth, with gray stripes. Leaves alternate, odd-pinnate, 15-30 cm; stipules lanceolate, early deciduous; leaflets 9-15; blades ovate-lanceolate or broadly ovate, base cuneate, oblique except for terminal leaflet, both surfaces glabrous except abaxially pubescent on midrib or lateral veins when young, then glabrescent, apex acuminate; leaf scar conspicuous, semirounded or rounded. Flowers dioecious, in axillary cymes; rachis densely yellow-brown puberulent. Sepals 4 or 5, small, ovate or oblong, abaxially yellow-brown puberulent, imbricate. Petals as many as sepals, ovate or broadly ovate, both surfaces with midrib puberulent. Stamens 2 × as long as petals in males, shorter than petals in females, opposite sepals. Disk 4- or 5-lobed. Carpels 4 or 5, free. Druparium blue-green when ripe, globose, 6-8 × 5-7 mm, calyx persistent, testa thin. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Sep.

Mountainous mixed forests; 1400-3200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka].

Lower Taxa

• Picrasma quassioides var. glabrescens Pampanini
• Picrasma quassioides var. quassioides