神农架花楸 shen nong jia hua qiu

Aria yuana (Spongberg) H. Ohashi & H. Iketani.

Trees small to medium-sized, to ca. 15 m tall. Branchlets reddish brown when young, purplish or grayish black when old, terete, sparsely white tomentose when young, glabrate, with small elongated or rounded lenticels; buds ovoid, 0.9–1.2 cm × 4–6 mm; scales chestnut-brown, glabrous except with scattered white hairs along margin. Leaves simple; petiole 1.5–2.7 cm, pubescent when young, later subglabrous; leaf blade pale green abaxially, dark green adaxially, elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 6–13 × 3.5–9.5 cm, lateral veins 11–13 pairs, nearly parallel and terminating in marginal teeth, prominent abaxially and impressed adaxially, abaxially persistently grayish white tomentose, adaxially glabrous when old, base cuneate or rounded to subcordate, margin deeply regularly doubly serrate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Compound corymbs terminal on elongated shoots, to 20 cm in diam., many flowered; rachis and pedicels purplish brown, tomentose when young, glabrate. Fruit cherry-red, oblong or obovoid-oblong, 1–1.6 cm × 6–13 mm, sparsely tomentose especially at base and apex, with few scattered lenticels, 2-loculed, with persistent remains of hypanthium and stamens, with densely pubescent base of style; seeds obovate, ca. 7 × 4 mm, testa dark reddish brown. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep.

Steep ravine slopes; above 2000 m. W Hubei, Sichuan.

This is a rare tree.