阔瓣天料木 kuo ban tian liao mu

Homalium brevisepalum How & Ko.

Trees, 10-12 m tall; branchlets purple-brown or black-brown, terete, twig tips at first minutely whitish puberulous (view at × 10 mag.), glabrescent. Stipules linear-oblong, to ca. 4 mm, papery, minutely puberulous, early caducous; petiole very short, ca. 1.5 mm, rarely to 3 mm, stout, very sparsely puberulous; leaf blade elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or obovate-elliptic, 7-13 × 4-6 cm, papery or subleathery, both surfaces initially densely and minutely puberulous (almost imperceptibly, view at × 20 mag.) with spreading hairs, becoming glabrous or with a few minute hairs remaining along veins (view at × 20 mag.), midvein and lateral veins raised abaxially, flat adaxially, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, reticulate veins inconspicuous, base acute, cuneate, margin serrate, teeth obtuse, apex broadly acute to obtuse, contracting to an acumen 5-10 mm. Inflorescence axillary, racemelike, 7-12 cm, sometimes with very short branches less than 5 mm; rachis pubescent, hairs spreading, whitish, short; bracts not seen. Pedicels ca. 3 mm, articulate near apex, pubescent, hairs spreading, short. Flowers numerous, 2-4-fasciculate along rachis, white, 5-7-merous, ca. 1.2 cm in diam., fragrant. Calyx tube narrowly obconic, 3-4 mm, sparsely puberulous, hairs whitish, semiappressed, short; sepals linear-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm, outside sparsely pubescent, hairs appressed and short, margin ciliate with short (0.1-0.2 mm) appressed hairs, apex acute or obtuse. Petals ca. 5 × 2-3 mm, broadly spatulate, conspicuously veined, outside glabrous, inside with a few semispreading short hairs toward base, margin ciliate, hairs spreading and short (ca. 0.2 mm), apex obtuse. Disk glands ca. 1 mm wide, sides sparsely hairy, apex flat, glabrous. Stamen filaments ca. 6 mm, longer than or equal to petals, with a few hairs scattered in lower part. Free part of ovary sparsely hairy, hairs spreading, whitish, short (ca. 0.2 mm); styles 3, free nearly to base, ca. 4 mm, hairy in lower part, hairs as for ovary; placentas 3, each with 2 or 3 ovules. Capsules (not seen) probably 6-8 mm. Fl. Aug-Dec, fr. Sep-Mar of following year.

● Mixed forests and thickets; low elevations. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan.