大理罗汉松 da li luo han song

Margbensonia forrestii (Craib & W. W. Smith) A. V. Bobrov & Melikyan.

Shrubs to 3 m, to 5.5 m in cultivation; branchlets robust, relatively thick, rather rigid, densely leafy. Leaves densely crowded; petiole 2-4 mm, narrowly winged; blade dark green and matt adaxially, grayish green abaxially, elliptic to linear-elliptic, 2-9 cm × 6-10 mm, rather leathery, midvein prominent, 0.5-1 mm wide, stomatal lines 30-50 on abaxial surface, base cuneate or shortly attenuate, margin thickened abaxially, apex obtuse or subacute. Pollen cones borne in clusters of 3, spikelike, 1.5-2 cm × ca. 2 mm; bracts acute, occasionally irregularly obtuse. Seed-bearing structures axillary, solitary; peduncle ca. 8 cm. Receptacle glaucous blue when immature, cylindric, relatively thin, slightly narrowed distally, ca. 3 mm, base with 2 linear bracts ca. 2 mm. Seed globose, 7-8 mm in diam. Seed maturity Aug.

* Dry or damp, shady places, open thickets, scrub, also cultivated in gardens and school yards; 2400-3000 m. Yunnan (Dali Xian: Diancang Shan)

Perhaps represents no more than the juvenile state of Podocarpus macrophyllus var. macrophyllus. It was placed in the synonymy of that species by de Laubenfels (Blumea 30: 276. 1985).