竹节树 zhu jie shu

Diatoma brachiata Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 296. 1790; Carallia integerrima Candolle; C. sinensis Arnott; Petalotoma brachiata (Loureiro) Candolle.

Trees to 10 m tall. Branches brown, corky. Stipules 1-2.5 cm. Petiole ca. 1 cm; leaf blade elliptic, obovate, oblanceolate, or rarely suborbicular, 5-15 × 2-10 cm, papery to thinly leathery, base cuneate, margin entire, serrate, or denticulate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences 1-6 cm, often resinous, usually shining from secreted resin. Flowers shortly pedicellate or sessile; bracteoles 2 or 3, partially connate into a cup. Calyx lobes 6 or 7, deltoid, 3-4 mm. Petals white, suborbiculate, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., apically emarginate and unevenly lacerate. Stamens ca. 2 mm. Ovary bulbous, ca. 2 mm; style ca. 2 mm; stigma discoid, apically 4-8-lobed. Fruit pink to red globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., glossy. Seeds reniform. Fl. winter-spring, fr. spring-summer.

Evergreen forests, thickets, swamps; near sea level to 900 m. Fujian, Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [S Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; N Australia, Madagascar, E Nepal, New Guinea, Pacific islands].