琼刺榄 qiong ci lan

Sideroxylon longispinosum Merrill, Lingnan Sci. J. 13: 66. 1934; S. embelifolium Merrill; Xantolis embelifolia (Merrill) P. Royen.

Shrubs or trees, 8--9(--13) m tall. Bark grayish yellow to grayish black. Branchlets glabrous with occasional spines; spines 1.5--3.5 cm, erect, hard, and cuspidate. Petiole 1--3 mm; leaf blade usually obovate, 2--4(--8) X 1--2.3(--3) cm, base cuneate, apex rounded to obtuse, lateral veins ca. 10 pairs. Flowers solitary or in several-flowered clusters. Pedicel 3--5(--8) mm, rust colored pubescent. Sepals 5, ovate, 5--6 mm, both surfaces rust colored pubescent. Corolla white; lobes 5, outside pubescent on middle part but glabrescent, inside sparsely villous. Stamens 5; filaments thick with a cluster of rust colored villous hairs on each side at base; staminodes 5, lanceolate to ovate, margin yellowish brown pubescent. Ovary subglobose, ca. 1.5 mm, densely rust colored pubescent. Style ca. 3 mm. Fruit green becoming pale brown, subglobose to subellipsoid, 1.2 cm, glabrous or appressed rust colored tomentose, with a ca. 1.2 cm persistent style and enlarged calyx; stalk of fruit 8--10 mm, glabrous. Seeds subglobose, slightly compressed, ca. 8 mm in diam., glossy brown; scar elliptic. Fl. Oct-Feb, fr. Jun-Oct.

Forest at low to middle altitudes. Hainan.