罗田玉兰 luo tian yu lan

Magnolia pilocarpa Z. Z. Zhao & Z. W. Xie, Acta Pharmacol. Sin. 22: 777. 1987; Yulania pilocarpa var. ellipticifolia D. L. Fu et al.

Trees, 12-15 m tall. Bark grayish brown. Young twigs purplish brown, glabrous. Stipular scar nearly 1/2 as long as petiole. Leaf blade obovate to broadly obovate, 10-17 × 8.5-11 cm, papery, abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green, secondary veins 9-11 on each side of midvein, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, apex broadly rounded and slightly emarginate. Flower buds ovoid, ca. 3 cm, yellow villous. Flowers appearing before leaves. Tepals 9; outer 3 tepals yellowish green, sepal-like, sharply triangular, 1.7-3 cm, membranous; tepals of inner 2 whorls white, nearly spoon-shaped, 7-10 × 3-5 cm, fleshy. Stamens numerous, ca. 1.1 cm; connective exserted and forming a ca. 1 mm mucro; anthers 8-9 mm, dehiscing laterally. Gynoecium ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 2 cm; carpels pubescent; stigmas ca. 1 mm. Fruit cylindric, 10-20 × ca. 3.5 cm, with residual trichomes. Seeds bean-shaped to obovoid; testa red; endotesta black. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Sep.

● Forests; ca. 500 m. Hubei (Luotian).

This species is used medicinally.

This plant may be one of the many spontaneous hybrids that originate in plantations with different Yulania species grown for medicinal xinyi with Y. biondii as one of the parents. Yulania wugangensis (T. B. Chao et al.) D. L. Fu (J. Wuhan Bot. Res. 19: 198. 2001; Magnolia wugangensis T. B. Chao et al., Acta Bot. Yunnan. 21: 171. 1999) may be another hybrid from the same sort of medicinal plantation in Henan and also involving Y. biondii as one of its parents.