柄芽银钩花 bing ya yin gou hua

Mitrephora laotica Finet & Gagnepain, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 54(Mém. 5): 87. 1907.

Trees to 10 m tall, glabrous except for flowers. Branches robust. Petiole ca. 7 mm; leaf blade oblong, 13-18 × 3-5 cm, leathery, abaxially pale gray/glaucous, adaxially glossy, midvein adaxially concave, secondary and reticulate veins obscure, base attenuate, apex obtuse and shortly cuspidate. Inflorescences 3- or 4-flowered. Flowers ca. 1.2 cm. Pedicel 6-7 mm, robust, bracteolate at base. Sepals broadly ovate to suborbicular, erect, outside puberulent, inside glabrous. Outer petals lanceolate, suberect, both surfaces pubescent; inner petals obovate, ca. 2 × as long as outer petals, both surfaces pubescent, base clawed, margin ciliate. Stamens many; connectives semiorbicular, papillose. Carpels 10, cylindric, glabrous; ovules 8-10 per carpel; stigmas fusiform, papillose. Fruit not seen. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

Dense woods; ca. 700 m. S. Yunnan [Laos, C and N Thailand].

Weerasooriya and Saunders (Syst. Bot. 30: 262. 2005) follow Bân and exclude this species from Mitrephora.