山毛柳 shan mao liu

Trees. Branches grayish green; branchlets brown, gray downy when young. Buds yellowish brown, ca. 3 mm, tomentulose. Leaves opposite, rarely subopposite; petiole ca. 1.3 mm, tomentose; leaf blade lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 1.8-4.5 × 0.7-1.5 cm, abaxially whitish, downy, adaxially dull green, with white, filamentous hairs, base rounded, margin rarely broadly cuneate, remotely denticulate, apex shortly acuminate; midvein yellow, densely tomentose or downy. Flowering nearly coetaneous. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin opposite, 3.5-4.5 cm × ca. 7 mm in juvenile fruit, sessile, with 2 linear leaflets; rachis downy; bracts black, elliptic, longer than ovary, villous. Female flower: ovary ovoid, downy; style 1/3-1/2 as long as ovary; stigma capitate, 4-lobed. Capsule ovoid-oblong, downy. Fl. Mar, fr. Apr.

* Mountain slopes; 1000-1300 m. S Shaanxi (Qinling Mountains)