Persea leptophylla (Handel-Mazzetti) Kostermans.

Large trees, to 28 m tall. Bark grayish brown. Branchlets thick, deeply brown, glabrous. Terminal buds subglobose; outer bud scales broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm, minutely sericeous except for margin, inner longer, yellowish brown sericeous. Petiole slightly thick, 1-3 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially glaucous, obovate-oblong, 14-24(-32) × 3.5-7(-8) cm, thinly papery, abaxially densely appressed sericeous when young, sparsely sericeous to glabrate later, adaxially glabrous, midrib impressed abaxially, conspicuously elevated adaxially, lateral veins 14-20(-24) pairs, reddish when fresh, veinlets sparse, inconspicuous, base cuneate, apex shortly acuminate. Panicles many, congested on base of young branchlet, 8-12(-15) cm, slender, many flowered, densely grayish puberulent. Pedicel ca. 5 mm. Flowers ca. 7 mm, white when fresh. Perianth subequal, oblong-elliptic, farinose-pubescent outside, puberulent or glabrous inside, margin ciliate. Stamens with fascicled hairs at base; glands of 3rd series large, orbicular-reniform, shortly stipitate. Fruit globose, ca. 1 cm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 5-10 mm.

● Valleys, mixed forests; 400-1200 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang.