膜萼苹婆 mo e ping po

Shrubs. Branchlets stellate puberulent, leaves several, nearly verticillate, bud scales many, persistent near tip, linear-lanceolate, 5-15 mm, longer than petiole, with yellowish brown branched hairs. Leaves simple; stipules mixed with bud scales; petiole 8-10 mm, hairy; leaf blade obovate or oblanceolate, 24-37 × 9-13 cm, papery or thinly leathery, dark green when dried, abaxially sparsely stellate on midrib and lateral veins, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 16-24 on each side of midrib, curved upward, base decurrent, cuneate or obtuse, apex obtuse or obtusely lanceolate. Inflorescence paniculate, terminal or axillary, 5-10 cm, with reddish yellow hairs. Pedicels slender. Epicalyx lobes linear, 5-7 mm, caducous. Calyx whitish or pink, up to 16 mm, calyx tube ca. 3 mm, abaxially hairy, adaxially glabrous, lobes ca. 12 mm, spreading starlike. Male flowers: androgynophore glabrous, reflexed, ca. 7 mm. Female flowers: ovary globose, sessile, densely hairy; ovules 5-8 per carpel. Style reflexed, hairy, as long as ovary; stigma sinuately 5-divided. Follicles 3-5, ± olive-shaped, 5-8 × ca. 2 cm before dehiscence, thickly papery, abaxially densely orange villous, adaxially glabrous, base attenuate into long and slender stipe, apex attenuate. Seed ellipsoid, ca. 1 cm. Fr. May.

Forests; 100-300 m. SE Yunnan (Hekou) [Vietnam].