桂火绳 gui huo sheng

Eriolaena ceratocarpa Hu.

Trees or shrubs, up to 11 m tall; bark gray. Branchlets yellowish brown stellate puberulent. Petiole 2-5 cm, hairy; leaf blade orbicular or broadly cordate, 9-15 × 7-13 cm, leathery or thinly leathery, abaxially densely stellate puberulent, adaxially sparsely stellate hairy, basal veins 5-7, base cordate, margin obtusely dentate, apex shortly pointed or caudate, shortly acuminate. Inflorescence cymelike racemose, axillary, with several flowers, rarely up to 10. Pedicels 5-15 mm; epicalyx lobes spatulate tongue-shaped, 1-1.5 cm, obviously dentate, teeth acuminate. Sepals (4 or)5, linear-lanceolate, 2-2.5 cm abaxially, densely yellow-brown velutinous, adaxially gray villous. Petals (4 or)5, obovate-spatulate, apex shortly pointed, ca. 2.5 × 0.8 cm, villous only on thick claw. Staminal tube ca. 12 mm. Ovary ovoid, yellowish stellate velutinous; stigma lobes reflexed. Capsule elliptic-lanceolate in outline, 3.5-5 × 1.5-2 cm, ± smooth, apex long beaked. Seeds winged, 1.5-2 cm including wing. Fl. Jun-Aug.

● Dense valley forests or scrub; 800-1200 m. Guangxi, S Yunnan.