香子含笑 xiang zi han xiao

Magnolia hypolampra (Dandy) Figlar; Michelia hedyosperma Y. W. Law.

Trees, to 21 m tall, to 60 cm d.b.h. Buds, young petioles, brachyblasts, flower buds, and carpels appressed short sericeous but other parts glabrous. Twigs black turning pale brown when old, sparsely scattered with lenticels. Leaf blade obovate to elliptic-obovate, 6-13 × 5-5.5 cm, thinly leathery, with Illicium odor when crushed, both surfaces freshly green, glossy, and glabrous, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein and prominent on both surfaces, reticulate veins slender, dense, and prominent on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate, apex with an obtuse tip. Flower buds long ellipsoid, ca. 2 cm. Brachyblasts ca. 1 cm. Flowers fragrant. Tepals 9, in 3 whorls; outer tepals membranous, linear, ca. 15 × 2 mm; tepals of inner 2 whorls narrowly elliptic, 1.5-2 × ca. 0.6 cm. Stamens ca. 25, 8-9 mm; connective exserted and forming a 1-1.5 mm sharp tip. Gynophore 4-5 mm and 2-3 cm in fruit; gynoecium ovoid; carpels ca. 10, narrowly ellipsoid, 6-7 mm, 5-ridged abaxially; ovules 6-8 per carpel; styles ca. 2 mm, reflexed. Fruiting brachyblasts thick, 1.5-2 cm. Mature carpels grayish black, ellipsoid, 2-4.5 × 1-2.5 cm, densely lenticellate, base shrunken into 2-8 mm stalks, apex mucronate, valves thick, reflexed when matured, exposing white endocarp. Seeds 1-4. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Sep-Oct.

Forests, slopes, ravines; 300-800 m. SW Guangxi, Hainan, S Yunnan [Vietnam].

FOC post-publication correction: The Committee for Vascular Plants recommended that “Talauma gioi” (Magnoliaceae) not be considered a validly published name (see Brummitt, Taxon 59: 1276–1277. 2010).