象牙树 xiang ya shu

Ehretia ferrea Willdenow, Phytographia 1: 4. 1794; Diospyros ferrea (Willdenow) Bakhuizen var. buxifolia (Rottboell) Bakhuizen; Maba buxifolia (Rottboell) A. L. Jussieu; Pisonia buxifolia Rottboell.

Trees, small, sometimes procumbent, evergreen. Branchlets grayish, pubescent to hirsute, glabrescent. Winter buds appressed brownish pubescent to hirsute. Petiole 4--5 mm; leaf blade oblong, oblong-oblanceolate, or elliptic, occasionally obovate, 2--4(--8) X 1--2(--3) cm, leathery, glabrous or nearly so, base attenuate to obtuse, apex rounded to emarginate, lateral veins 5--7 per side and usually inconspicuous, reticulate veinlets almost invisible and sometime adaxially ± raised. Male inflorescences 1--3-flowered, densely appressed pubescent; pedicel very short to almost absent; calyx cup-shaped, 2.5--3.5 mm, densely pubescent; calyx lobes 3, erect, flat, ca. 1/2 as long as tube, apex rounded; corolla urn-shaped, 6--8.5 mm; corolla tube 4--5 mm, outside partly densely sericeous, inside glabrous; corolla lobes 3, spreading, 2--3.5 X 1.5--2 mm, apex rounded; stamens (5--)8, often partly exserted from tube; pistillode densely hirsute. Female flowers sessile or subsessile; calyx lobes 3--5, ciliate, outside tomentose; ovary 3-locular, densely hirsute, rarely glabrescent. Fruit solitary, subsessile. Fruiting calyx bowl-shaped, ca. 3 X 6 mm, pubescent or glabrous; lobes 3(--5), shorter than tube, apex rounded. Berries ellipsoid, 8--13 X ca. 8 mm, 3-locular, finely puberulous, glabrous when mature. Seeds 1--3, almost black, cylindric, often flat on one side, ca. 8 X 3.5 mm. Fr. Sep.

Evergreen broadleaved forests along coast; 0--500 m. Taiwan (Hengchun peninsula, Huoshao Dao, Lanyu) [Cambodia, India, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand; Australia].

Cultivated in Taipei. The wood is used for walking sticks and for ornamental carvings.