蜡烛果 la zhu guo

Rhizophora corniculataLinnaeus, Amoen. Acad. 4: 123. 1759; Aegiceras majus Gaertner; Umbraculum corniculatum (Linnaeus) Kuntze.

Plants ca. 1.5 m tall. Branchlets reddish or blackish brown, glabrous. Petiole 5-10 mm; leaf blade elliptic or broadly obovate, 3-8 × 2-4.5 cm, leathery, base cuneate, margin entire, revolute, apex rounded or emarginate; lateral veins 7-11 on each side of midrib, densely puberulent abaxially. Inflorescences terminal, subsessile, ca. 10-flowered; bracts oblong-lanceolate, deciduous. Pedicel ca. 1 cm, ± glandular. Flowers ca. 1 cm. Calyx lobes rhomboid, 5-6 × 3-4 mm, leathery, prominently veined, black glandular at base, asymmetric, entire, apex broadly rounded. Corolla white, ca. 9 mm; lobes ovate, ca. 5 mm, asymmetric, acuminate, reflexed; tube 3-4 mm, villous inside. Stamens longer than corolla tube; filaments villous basally on outside, glabrous inside; anthers ca. 3 mm. Style black glandular basally. Fruit 6(-8) cm, 5-6 mm in diam., glabrous, base clasped by twisted persistent sepals. Fl. Dec-Feb, fr. Oct-Dec.

Mangrove, muddy flats, coasts. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Nanhai Zhudao [India, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam; Australia]