白花含笑 bai hua han xiao

Magnolia mediocris (Dandy) Figlar; Michelia mediocris var. angustifolia G. A. Fu; M. rubriflora Y. W. Law & R. Z. Zhou; M. subulifera Dandy.

Trees, to 25 m tall, to 90 cm d.b.h. Bark grayish brown. Young twigs and young leaf blades grayish white appressed pubescent. Buds reddish brown, pendulous, apex acute. Petiole 1.5-3 cm, without a stipular scar; leaf blade rhomboid-elliptic, 6-13 × 3-5 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially grayish white appressed puberulous, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 10-15 on each side of midvein, slender, and inconspicuous, reticulate veins dense, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, apex shortly acuminate. Spathaceous bracts 3. Flower buds ellipsoid, 10-15 × 5-9 mm, densely brownish yellow to grayish white appressed puberulous. Tepals 9, white, spoon-shaped, 1.8-2.2 × 0.5-0.8 cm. Stamens 1-1.5 cm; connective exserted and forming a 3-4 mm long tip; anthers 0.8-1.4 cm. Gynophore 3-5 mm, densely silvery appressed puberulous; gynoecium cylindric, ca. 1 cm; carpels 7-14; ovules 4 or 5 per carpel. Fruit blackish brown when matured, 2-3.5 cm; mature carpels obovoid, ellipsoid, or globose, 1-2 cm, slightly compressed, white lenticellate, apex with an obtuse beak. Seeds 5-8 × ca. 5 mm; testa bright red. Fl. Oct-Feb, fr. Jun-Nov.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 400-1000 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, S Hunan [Cambodia, Vietnam].

Michelia biacuminata Y. W. Law & R. Z. Zhou and M. elliptifolia Y. W. Law & R. Z. Zhou (in Y. H. Liu, Magnolias China, 224, 246. 2004) belong here but were not validly published because no Latin descriptions or diagnoses were provided and no types were indicated (Vienna Code, Art. 36.1 and 37.1).