鸡仔木 ji zai mu

Nauclea racemosa Siebold & Zuccarini, Abh. Math.-Phys. Cl. Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. 4: 178. 1846; Adina asperula Handel-Mazzetti; A. mollifolia Hutchinson; A. racemosa (Siebold & Zuccarini) Miquel; Cornus esquirolii H. Léveillé; N. taiwaniana Hayata; N. transversa Hayata.

Semi- to fully deciduous trees, 4-12 m tall; trunk bark gray; branches glabrous. Petiole (1-)3-6(-8) cm, glabrous or puberulent; leaf blade drying thinly leathery, ovate, ovate-oblong, or elliptic, (4-)9-15(-25) × (3-)5-10(-18) cm, adaxially shiny and glabrous or infrequently sparsely hirtellous, abaxially glabrous to pilosulous, base cordate to obtuse, sometimes slightly inequilateral, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 6-12 pairs, sometimes with foveolate or to pilosulous domatia; stipules (5-)10-15 × 2-5 mm, puberulent to glabrous, lobes suborbicular. Inflorescence densely puberulent; peduncles 1-3 cm; branched portion 5-10 × 5-10 cm, branched to 1 order; flowering heads 4-8 mm in diam. across calyces, 14-18 mm in diam. across corollas; bracteoles ca. 1 mm. Calyx villosulous; ovary portion ellipsoid-obcuneate, 0.7-1 mm, surrounded at base by a ring of trichomes 0.5-1 mm; limb deeply lobed, lobes spatulate, ca. 0.5 mm, at apex rounded and thickened. Corolla outside densely woolly puberulent; tube (3-)4-5 mm; lobes spatulate to deltoid, 0.5-1 mm, acute to obtuse. Stigma fusiform, 0.3-0.4 mm, exserted for 4-6 mm. Fruiting head 11-15 mm in diam. Capsules obovoid-cuneate, 5-7 mm, sparsely hirtellous; seeds 2.5-3.5 × 0.5-1 mm, often bifid at apex. Fl. and fr. May-Dec.

Sunny watersides, forests; 300-1000(-1500) m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Myanmar, Thailand].

The synonym Cornus esquirolii was first cited for this species by Lauener and Ferguson (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 32: 103. 1972), based on a type from Guizhou, China.