红果黄肉楠 hong guo huang rou nan

Litsea cupularis Hemsley, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 26: 380. 1891; Fiwa cupularis (Hemsley) Nakai.

Shrubs or small trees, 2-10 m tall. Young branchlets puberulent. Leaves usually 5- or 6-crowded on top branchlets, subverticillate; petiole 3-8 mm, pubescent; leaf blade oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 5.5-13.5 × 1.5-2.7 cm, pubescent and gradually becoming glabrous abaxially, glabrous adaxially, pinninerved, lateral veins 8-13 pairs, slender, base and apex acuminate or acute. Umbel solitary or numerous in lateral side of branchlet, sessile, male umbel 6- or 7-flowered. Pedicel villous. Perianth segments 6(-8), ovate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm. Male flowers: fertile stamens 9; filaments ca. 4 mm, glabrous, of 3rd whorls each with 2 glands at base. Fruit ovoid, 12-14 × ca. 10 mm, apiculate, glabrous, red at maturity, seated on entire or deeply undulate cup-shaped perianth tube. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Mountain slopes, dense forests, streamsides, thickets; 300-1300 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan.

The seeds may be processed for their oil, which is used for making soap and lubricant. The roots and leaves are used medicinally for curing hemorrhoids, athlete’s foot, etc.