陵水暗罗 ling shui an luo

Guatteria littoralis Blume, Fl. Javae, Annonaceae, 99. 1830; Polyalthia zhui X. L. Hou & S. J. Li.

Shrubs or small trees, to 5 m tall. Branchlets dark purple, striate, appressed grayish yellow pubescent, soon glabrous. Petiole yellowish, 3-5 mm, puberulent; leaf blade oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 9-19 × 2-6 cm, leathery, glabrous, abaxially glossy pale green, adaxially dark green, often bluish green when dry, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, at 60°-80° to midrib, arcuately ascending, and anastomosing 3-5 mm from margin, base cuneate to rounded, apex acuminate to bluntly acute. Inflorescences leaf-opposed, 1- or 2-flowered; peduncle ca. 1 mm. Flowers 1-2 cm in diam. Pedicel to 3 mm, pubescent; bracteole 1, broadly ovate, 1-2 × ca. 2 mm, apex acuminate. Sepals triangular, ca. 2 mm, outside pubescent, apex acute. Petals white, oblong-elliptic, 6-8 mm, spreading, subequal or inner petals slightly shorter than outer petals, slightly thick, outside pubescent, apex acute to obtuse. Stamens many; connectives apically truncate, puberulent. Carpels 7-11(-30), puberulent; ovule 1 per carpel, basal; stigmas obovate, shallowly 2-cleft. Monocarp stipes 2-5 mm, puberulent; monocarps 4-7(-11), red but purplish red when dried, ovoid-ellipsoid, 1-1.5 × 0.8-1 cm, glabrous, densely minutely dotted. Seed 1 per monocarp, red, ellipsoid, 10-12 × 6-8 mm. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Jul-Feb. 2n = 36.

Forested slopes, margins of wet forests, along small streams; 100-800 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam].

Molecular data (Mols et al., Amer. J. Bot. 91: 598. 2004) suggest that Polyalthia littoralis and related species are more closely related to the genus Marsypopetalum Scheffer rather than Polyalthia s.s. "Polyalthia caloneura," proposed but not validly published by X. L. Hou (http://www.abclunwen.com/lunwen-free-387606/; accessed on 25 Nov 2010), belongs here. Polyalthia zhui was based on material with immature flowers.