夜香木兰 ye xiang mu lan

Basionym: Liriodendron coco Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 347. 1790; Magnolia coco (Loureiro) Candolle; M. pumila Andrews; Talauma coco (Loureiro) Merrill; T. pumila (Andrews) Blume.

Trees or shrubs, 2-4 m tall, glabrous. Bark gray. Twigs green, smooth, slightly ridged, glossy. Stipular scar reaching apex of petiole. Petiole 5-10 mm; leaf blade elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or obovate-elliptic, 7-14(-28) × 2-4.5(-9) cm, leathery, adaxially deep green, glossy, and slightly wavy wrinkled, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, reticulate veins sparse, base cuneate, margin slightly revolute, apex long acuminate. Peduncle pendulous, with 3 or 4 bract scars. Flowers globose, 3-4 cm in diam. Tepals 9, obovate, fleshy, adaxially concave; 3 tepals of outer whorl greenish, ca. 2 cm, 5-veined; tepals of inner 2 whorls pure white, 3-4 × ca. 4 cm. Stamens 4-6 mm; filaments white, ca. 2 mm; connective exserted and forming a mucro; anthers ca. 3 mm. Gynoecium green, ovoid, 1.5-2 cm; carpels ca. 10, narrowly ovoid, 5-6 mm, abaxially with 1 furrow downward to base of style; styles short, deciduous after anthesis and leaving carpel with a truncate apex. Fruit ca. 3 cm; mature carpels nearly woody. Seeds ovoid, ca. 1 cm, apex laterally pitted adaxially, ventral furrow inconspicuous, base cuneate; endotesta brown. Fl. summer (all year in Guangzhou, Guangdong), fr. autumn. 2n = 38.

Forests; 600-900 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Vietnam].

This species is grown as an ornamental and used medicinally.