细花泡花树 xi hua pao hua shu

Meliosma dilatata Diels.

Shrubs or small trees, to 10 m tall, deciduous. Bark gray, smooth. Leaves simple; petiole 5-15 mm; leaf blade adaxially dark green and nitid, obovate, 6-11 × 3-7 cm, papery, abaxially sparsely pubescent, crinite in axils of lateral veins, adaxially sometimes pubescent on midvein, lateral veins 8-15 pairs, straight or not, branched far away from margin, terminal veins running into teeth, attenuate from middle to base, upper margin undulate-serrulate, apex rounded or subtruncate, tip shortly acute. Panicle terminal, 9-30 × 10-20 cm, 4 × branched, pubescent. Flowers 1.5-2 mm in diam. Sepals 5, broadly ovate or orbicular, ca. 0.5 mm wide, ciliate. Petals white: 3 outer ones orbicular, ca. 1 mm in diam., ciliate; 2 inner ones ca. 0.5 mm, bifid to half at an obtuse angle; lobes ciliate. Stamens ca. 1 mm. Ovary pubescent. Drupe globose, 5-6 mm in diam.; endocarp compressed-globose, midrib prominent. Fl. summer, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Jungles, streamsides in forests; 100-1200 m. Henan, W Hubei, S Jiangsu, Sichuan, Xizang, N Zhejiang.

This species is a source of good timber.