沉水樟 chen shui zhang

Machilus micrantha Hayata, Icon. Pl. Formosan. 2: 130. 1912; Cinnamomum kanehirae Hayata; C. micranthum f. kanehirae (Hayata) S. S. Ying; C. xanthophyllum H. W. Li.

Trees, 14-20(-30) m tall, (25-)40-50(-65) cm d.b.h. Bark rigid, up to 4 mm thick, black-brown or reddish brownish gray outside, brown inside, irregularly and longitudinally fissured. Branchlets tea-brown, terete, longitudinally striate when dry, scattered with convex orbicular lenticels, young ones not lenticellate, ± compressed, glabrous. Terminal buds large, ovoid, ca. 6 × 5 mm; bud scales densely imbricate, broadly ovate, brown sericeous-pubescent, apex obtuse or apiculate. Leaves alternate, always inserted on upper part of young branchlets; petiole tea-brown, 2-3 cm, plano-convex, glabrous; leaf blade yellow-brown abaxially and yellow-green adaxially when dry, oblong-elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 7.5-9.5(-10) × 4-5(-6) cm, papery to subleathery, glabrous on both surfaces, pinninerved, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, arcuate-ascendant, anastomosing within leaf margin, lateral veins and midrib conspicuous on both surfaces, axils of lateral veins dome-shaped and puberulent abaxially, bullate adaxially, transverse veins and veinlets reticulate, foveolate on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, ± slightly asymmetric on sides, margin cartilaginous and involute, apex shortly acuminate. Panicles tea-brown when dry, terminal and axillary, short, 3-5 cm, subglabrous or slightly puberulent at base, branched almost from base; branches patent, ca. 2 cm, terminal one bearing a cyme. Pedicels ca. 2 mm, slightly dilated at base, glabrous. Flowers white or purple-red, scented, ca. 2.5 mm. Perianth glabrous outside, densely villous inside; perianth tube campanulate, ca. 1.2 mm; perianth lobes 6, narrowly ovate, ca. 1.3 mm, obtuse at apex. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 1 mm; filaments villous at base, a little longer than anthers, complanate, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 shortly stalked suborbicular-reniform glands near base, others glandless; anthers broadly oblong, 4-celled; cells lateral-introrse (of 1st and 2nd whorl) or lateral-extrorse (of 3rd whorl). Staminodes 3, including stalk ca. 0.8 mm, triangular-subulate; stalk ca. 0.4 mm. Ovary ovoid, ca. 0.6 mm, abruptly attenuate into a ca. 0.6 mm long style; stigma capitate. Fruit shiny, greenish when fresh, ellipsoid, 1.5-2.2 × 1.5-2 cm, maculate, glabrous; perianth cup in fruit urceolate, ca. 9 mm, column base ca. 2 mm long and broad, abruptly dilated into a trumpet toward apex, trumpet ca. 9-10 mm wide, margin entire or undulate. Fl. Jul-Aug(-Oct), fr. Oct.

Dense forests on mountain slopes or in valleys, roadsides, riverbanks; 300-700 m (to 1800 m in Taiwan). Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Jiangxi, Taiwan [N Vietnam].

This species is nearly always mixed with Cinnamomum parthenoxylon in forests, but it is easily distinguished by its bark and leaf color and short panicle.