香木莲 xiang mu lian

Magnolia aromatica (Dandy) V. S. Kumar; Paramanglietia aromatica (Dandy) Hu & W. C. Cheng.

Trees, to 35 m tall, to 1.2 m d.b.h., glabrous except vegetative buds white appressed pubescent, aromatic. Bark gray and smooth. Young twigs pale green; terminal buds ellipsoid, ca. 3 × 1.2 cm. Stipular scar 1/4-1/3 as long as petiole. Petiole 1.5-2.5 cm; leaf blade narrowly obovate to narrowly elliptic, 15-19 × 6-7 cm, thinly leathery, lower ca. 1/3 gradually tapered, secondary veins 12-16 on each side of midvein, reticulate veins sparse and conspicuously prominent on both surfaces when dry, base slightly decurrent, apex shortly acuminate to acuminate. Peduncle strong, 10-15 × 6-8 mm in fruit; bract scar 1, 5-7 mm basal to tepals. Tepals 11 or 12, in 4 whorls of 3, white; outer 3 tepals obovate-oblong, 7-11 × 3.5-5 cm, nearly leathery; tepals of inner whorls obovate-spoon-shaped, 9-11.5 × 4-5.5 cm, fleshy, base clawed. Stamens ca. 100, 1.5-1.8 cm. Carpels glabrous. Fruit red when fresh, subglobose to ovoid, 7-8 cm in diam.; mature carpels dehiscing along ventral and then dorsal sutures. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 38.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 900-1600 m. SW Guangxi, Guizhou, SE Yunnan [Vietnam].