6. Bennettiodendron Merrill, J. Arnold Arbor. 8: 10. 1927.
山桂花属 shan gui hua shu
Bennettia Miquel, Fl. Ned. Ind. 1(2): 105. 1858, not Gray (1821), nor R. Brown (1852), nor Bennetia Rafinesque (1830).
Shrubs or small trees, reportedly dioecious, young shoots with a perular bud, perular bracts persistent. Leaves alternate, uppermost often clustered at apices of branches; estipulate; petiole mostly elongate, shorter in upper leaves, with a pair of glands at apex only or glands completely absent; leaf blade pinnate-veined, sometimes 3-5-veined from base with lateral veins much weaker than midvein, margin ± coarsely glandular-serrate. Flowers hypogynous, small, unisexual, rarely at least structurally bisexual, in axillary or terminal, paniculate, rarely corymblike or racemelike inflorescences; bracts and bracteoles small, caducous; pedicels articulate. Sepals 3(-5), imbricate, free or joined at base only, small, ciliate, caducous, rarely persistent. Petals absent. Disk glands present, small, dispersed among stamen or staminode bases. Staminate flowers: stamens many; filaments free, filiform, pubescent with long hairs in lower half, rarely glabrous; anthers elliptic, small, dorsifixed, versatile; disk glands many, set between the stamen filament bases, small, short, fleshy, glabrous; abortive ovary small, with 3 short styles. Pistillate flowers: staminodes many, like the stamens but smaller and sterile, filaments less than 1/2 as long as those of staminate flowers, pubescent at base; disk glands many, small, truncate, set between staminode bases; ovary superior, incompletely 3-loculed; placentas 3, each with 2 or 3 ovules; styles 2-4, not or scarcely joined at base, divergent, slender, each dilated at apex into a flattened irregularly branched or lobed stigma, caducous. Berry globose, small, rather dry; style caducous or basal part persistent; pericarp thin, brittle when dried. Seeds 1(-4), yellowish when fresh, blackish when dry, shiny; testa slightly reticulate.
Two or three species: Asia; one species in China.
Fan (J. S. W. Forest. Coll. 15(3): 27. 1995) recorded Bennettiodendron cordatum Merrill from S Guangxi. The only specimen cited by him, X. R. Liang 69814, has leaves not obviously cordate at base, and can be safely referred to B. leprosipes. In B. cordatum, a species occurring in Vietnam, the leaves are obviously cordate at base.
