翻白叶树 fan bai ye shu

Pterospermum levinei Merrill.

Trees, to 20 m tall; bark gray or gray-brown. Branchlets yellow-brown pilose. Petiole 1-2 cm, hairy; leaf blade oblong-ovate to oblong, 7-15 × 3-10 cm, abaxially densely yellow-brown stellate pubescent, adaxially nearly glabrous; base obtuse, truncate or obliquely cordate, apex acute or acuminate; juvenile and coppice leaves: petiole ca. 12 cm, leaf blade palmately 3-5-lobed, ca. 15 cm in diam., base conspicuously peltate, truncate or slightly rounded. Flowers solitary or in cymes of 2-4; pedicel 0.5-1.5 cm; epicalyx lobes closely adnate to calyx, scalelike. Sepals linear, up to 2.8 × 0.4 cm, both surfaces puberulent. Petals greenish white, oblanceolate, as long as sepals. Androgynophore ca. 2.5 mm; staminodes filiform, slightly longer than stamens. Ovary ovoid, villous; style glabrous. Capsule woody, cylindrical-ovoid, ca. 6 × 2-2.5 cm, yellow tomentose, base tapering into robust, 1-1.5 cm stipe, apex obtuse. Fl. autumn.

● Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan.

The roots of Pterospermum heterophyllum are of medicinal use. The epithet refers to the great contrast in form between juvenile and mature leaves but this is not unique to this species.