苹婆 ping po

Trees; bark brown-black. Branchlets at first minutely stellate. Leaves simple; stipules caducous; petiole 2-3.5 cm; leaf blade oblong or elliptic, 8-25 × 5-15 cm, thinly leathery, glabrous, base rounded or obtuse, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, paniculate, slender and lax, to 20 cm, pubescent. Pedicels much longer than flowers. Calyx cream-white, becoming reddish, campanulate, ca. 10 mm, abaxially pubescent, lobes linear-lanceolate, as long as calyx tube, apex acuminate, incurved and cohering apically, as long as calyx tube. Male flowers many, androgynophore curved, glabrous, anthers yellow. Female flowers fewer, slightly larger. Ovary globose, with 5 grooves, densely hairy; style curved; stigma shallowly 5-lobed. Follicles red, oblong-ovate, ca. 5 × 2-3 cm, 1-4-seeded, thickly leathery, apex beaked. Seeds black-brown, ellipsoid or oblong, ca. 1.5 cm. Fl. Apr-May, rarely Oct-Nov.

Dense forests, also often cultivated. SE Fujian, S Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, S Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam].