海南大风子 hai nan da feng zi

Taraktogenos hainanensis Merrill, Philipp. J. Sci. 23: 255. 1923.

Trees, evergreen, 6-12 m tall; bark gray-brown; branchlets terete, glabrous. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, glabrous or initially sparsely appressed-pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade usually oblong, less often elliptic, narrowly ovate, or slightly obovate, 9-18 × 3-6 cm, 2-3 × as long as wide, thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, reticulate veins conspicuous, base acute to obtuse or rounded, cuneate, margin irregularly repand, serrulate or serrate, teeth sometimes sharply acute, leaf apex acute to obtuse, usually gradually or abruptly acuminate, acumen to ca. 2 cm. Inflorescence axillary or subterminal, 1.5-2.5 cm; flowers unisexual, 15-20 in much condensed (especially staminate flowers) shortly pedunculate cymes. Pedicels 8-15 mm, initially with sparse, short, appressed hairs, soon glabrous. Sepals 4, free, elliptic or orbicular, 5-6 × ca. 4 mm, both sides glabrous or outside sparsely appressed-hairy. Petals 4, free, reniform-ovate, 2-3 × 3-4 mm, both sides (excl. scale) glabrous, margin ciliate; scale ca. 1/2 as long as petal, irregularly 4-6-dentate, villous. Staminate flowers: stamens ca. 12; filaments ca. 1.5 mm, stout at base, sparsely hairy, hairs rather long, drying white; anthers sagittate, 1.5-2.5 mm; reduced ovary absent. Pistillate flowers: staminodes ca. 15, stamenlike but with anthers reduced, indumentum as for fertile stamens; ovary ovoid-ellipsoid, very densely yellowish brown pubescent, hairs closely appressed; placentas 5; ovules many; styles absent; stigmas 3 or 4, joined at base, flattened-deltoid, ca. 5 mm, bifid with each branch apex irregularly toothed or lobed, abaxially densely hairy at base, hairs as for ovary, adaxially glabrous. Berry globose, 4-5 cm in diam., densely pale to dark brown or yellowish tomentose, sometimes yellowish; pericarp leathery, exocarp not fibrous, stalk 6-7 mm, stout. Seeds ca. 20, ovoid, ca. 2.5 × 1.5-2 cm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Aug.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 300-1800 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Yunnan [Vietnam].

E (in Fu & Jin, China Pl. Red Data Book 1: 306-307. 1992) gave the conservation status of this species as vulnerable. The 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (www.iucnredlist.org, at 19 January 2007) also gave the status as vulnerable (VU A1cd). In China the species is under threat from habitat loss and harvesting of the timber (hard, heavy, compact, durable, and decay-resistant) and the fruit (the seeds have a relatively high component of chaulmoogric oil, locally important for the treatment of skin conditions). Natural regeneration is poor.