香皮树 xiang pi shu

Trees to 10 m tall, evergreen. Bark gray; branchlets, petioles, abaxial surface of leaf blade, and inflorescences brownish pubescent. Leaves simple; petiole 1.5-3.5 cm, sparsely pubescent; leaf blade adaxially nitid, oblanceolate to lanceolate, or narrowly obovate to narrowly elliptic, 9-18(-25) × 2.5-5(-8) cm, subleathery, adaxially pubescent on midvein and lateral veins, lateral veins 11-20 pairs, base narrowly cuneate, elongated, margin entire or somewhat serrate near apex, apex acuminate, rarely obtuse. Panicle terminal or subterminal, 10-40 cm, broad, branched 3 or 4(or 5) times. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm or flowers subsessile. Flowers 1-1.5 mm in diam. Sepals 4(or 5), broadly ovate, ca. 0.5 mm, abaxially sparsely pubescent, ciliate. Petals: 3 outer ones suborbicular, ca. 1.5 mm in diam.; 2 inner ones ca. 0.5 mm, bifid to half at an obtuse angle; lobes linear. Stamens ca. 0.7 mm. Pistil ca. 0.8 mm; ovary glabrous; style equal to ovary. Drupe subglobose or compressed-globose, 3-5 mm in diam.; endocarp convex, with distinct, scattered netlike strips, midrib prominent. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Oct.

Evergreen tropical and subtropical forests, forested ravines; below 1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Hunan, S Jiangxi, Yunnan [Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam].

This species is used medicinally.