西康天女花 xi kang tian nü hua

Basionym: Magnolia parviflora Blume var. wilsonii Finet & Gagnepain, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 52(Mém. 4): 39. 1906 ["wilsoni"]; M. globosa J. D. Hooker & Thomson subsp. wilsonii (Finet & Gagnepain) J. Li; M. liliifera Baillon var. taliensis (W. W. Smith) Pampanini; M. nicholsoniana Rehder & E. H. Wilson; M. taliensis W. W. Smith; M. wilsonii (Finet & Gagnepain) Rehder; M. wilsonii f. nicholsoniana (Rehder & E. H. Wilson) Rehder; M. wilsonii f. taliensis (W. W. Smith) Rehder.

Shrubs or small trees, rarely to 8 m tall. Bark grayish brown, conspicuously lenticellate. Old twigs gray; annual twigs purplish red, at first brown villous. Stipular scar 4/5-5/6 as long as petiole. Petiole (0.5-)1-3(-5) cm, densely brown villous; leaf blade elliptic-ovate to oblong-ovate, 6.5-12(-20) × 3-5(-8) cm, papery, abaxially silvery gray appressed villous, adaxially grayish yellow pubescent along midvein and secondary veins, trichomes on midvein and secondary veins usually brown, base rounded to sometimes slightly cordate, apex acute to acuminate. Peduncle pendulous, 1.5-5 cm, brown villous. Flowers appearing at same time as leaves, cupular at first, plate-shaped at anthesis, 10-12 cm in diam., fragrant. Tepals 9(-12), white; outer 3 tepals broadly spoon-shaped to obovate, 4-6.5(-7.5) × 3-4.5(-5.5) cm, subequal to inner ones, base clawed, apex rounded. Stamens purplish red, 0.8-1.2 cm; filaments red, 1.5-2 mm; connective rounded or emarginate at apex; thecae distinct, 8-9 mm. Gynoecium green, ovoid-cylindric, 1.5-2 cm; carpels ca. 1 cm. Fruit red and then becoming purple when mature, terete, 6-10 × 2-3 cm, pendulous; mature carpels beaked. Seeds obovoid, ca. 6 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 38*.

● Forests; 1900-3000 m. Guizhou, C and W Sichuan, N Yunnan.

This species is grown as an ornamental and is used medicinally.