五室火绳 wu shi huo sheng

Microchlaena quinquelocularis Wight & Arnott, Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient. 1: 71. 1834; Wallichia quinquelocularis (Wight & Arnott) Steudel.

Trees, to 10 m tall; bark gray-white. Branchlets sparsely stellate hairy when young. Petiole 1.5-3 cm; leaf blade round or broadly ovate, 5-8 cm in diam., thickly papery, abaxially densely white stellate puberulent, adaxially sparsely stellate puberulent, base cordate, margin obtusely dentate, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescence cymose, terminal or axillary, up to 9 cm; peduncle robust, often 3-flowered. Pedicels shorter than flowers; epicalyx lobes entire, ovate or elliptic-ovate. Sepals 5, linear-lanceolate, ca. 2 cm, abaxially densely yellowish brown stellate tomentulose, hairs shorter adaxially, glandular at base. Petals 5, yellow, as long as sepals, apex obtuse, with broad stipe. Stamens as long as petals; stigmas 6-8, curved outward. Capsule long ellipsoid, 3-4.5 × ca. 2.5 cm, abaxially densely yellow-brown puberulent and mealy, 5-10-valved, not verrucose, valve loculicidal, lower 1/2 densely white villous, apex acute. Seeds 8 in each valve, arranged in 2 lines, ca. 2.5 cm including wing, wing membranous, oblong, apex obtuse, 1.3-1.8 cm. Fl. May.

Open forests, savannas; 800-1700 m. S Yunnan [India].