鳞花木 lin hua mu

Trees, to 12 m tall. Branches grayish yellow, slightly zigzag, strong, stout, internodes often very short, subglabrous. Leaves paripinnate, slightly dense, axis strong, nearly concolorous with branches, terete, 15-34 cm, striate, glabrous; leaflets 4-6 pairs; petiolules ca. 1 cm, strong, stout, adaxially deeply furrowed; blades abaxially pale brown when dry, adaxially slightly shiny, olive-green, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic-ovate, 6-20 × 2-6 cm, first pair (near base) evidently smaller, leathery, glabrous, midvein, lateral, and reticulate veins prominent on both sides, lateral veins slightly denser, 15-22 pairs, arched and ascending near margin, inconspicuously netted, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate or cuspidate. Inflorescences axillary or on leafless old branches, to 30 cm, densely pilose, rachis slightly stout, ridged, branches spreading. Flower buds subglobose, ca. 5 mm. Sepals 5, suborbicular or broadly obovate, concave, margin thin, abaxially tomentose. Petals 5 or sometimes 4, upper part cuneate-orbicular, lower part gradually narrowed, 7-8 × 4-5 mm, abaxially only long white hairy at base, clawed, margin erose; scales connate with petals at margin, apex 2-lobed, white ciliate, with cristate appendage. Disk oblique, usually 3-lobed, abaxially tomentose, adaxially glabrous. Stamens 8 or sometimes 7, slightly exserted; filaments densely hairy. Ovary 3-loculed, tomentose; style stout; stigma capitate. Fruit (not thoroughly mature) with a short, stout stalk, subglobose, to 2 cm in diam., usually 3-loculed; pericarp leathery, abaxially shortly grayish tomentose, adaxially glabrous. Seeds 1 per locule. Fr. Jun-Jul.

● S Hainan.