海边柿 hai bian shi

Diospyros kusanoi Hayata; D. liukiuensis Makino.

Trees 3--12 m tall, evergreen. Young shoots yellowish brown, glabrous. Winter buds sericeous. Petiole ca. 1 cm; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to lanceolate-oblong, 7--17 X 3--8 cm, leathery, glabrous except sometimes for pubescent abaxial surface when young, ± concolorous, base obtuse to somewhat attenuate and with 2(--4) gland patches near petiole, apex obtusely acuminate, lateral veins ca. 7 per side, reticulate veinlets slender and inconspicuous. Inflorescences bracteate at base. Male flowers in 2- or 3-flowered cymes; pedicels short and thick; calyx ca. 3.5 mm, densely sericeous throughout; calyx lobes 4, triangular, slightly longer than tube; corolla urn-shaped, ca. 1.6 cm; corolla tube ca. 9 mm, outside densely appressed hairy; corolla lobes 3 or 4, oblong, ca. 7 X 4 mm, outside with right half densely sericeous, otherwise subglabrous, apex rounded; stamens 16; filaments hirsute; pistillode hirsute. Female flowers solitary, sessile; calyx lobes 4, both surfaces sericeous; corolla outside sericeous, inside glabrous; staminodes present; ovary 8-locular, rusty hairy. Fruiting calyx ca. 2 cm in diam.; lobes 4, poorly defined, reflexed. Berries orange-colored, depressed globose, 1.5--3 cm in diam., 8-locular, glabrous when ripe except for base of style.

Usually scattered in thickets along seashore. N Taiwan, Yunnan [Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam; SE Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands].

The fruit and bark contain an anesthetic substance. The wood is used for furniture and rifle butts.