川桂 chuan gui

Cinnamomum wilsonii var. multiflorum Gamble.

Trees, ca. 25 m tall, ca. 30 cm d.b.h. Branchlets terete, dark brown or purple-brown when dry. Leaves alternate or opposite; petiole 10-15 mm, slightly sulcate adaxially, glabrous; leaf blade gray-green and opaque abaxially, green and shiny adaxially, ovate or ovate-oblong, 8.5-18 × 3.2-3.5 cm, leathery, white sericeous when young but soon glabrate abaxially, glabrous adaxially, triplinerved, midrib and basal lateral veins elevated on both surfaces, all yellowish when dry, basal lateral veins arising 5-15 mm above leaf base, arcuate and evanescent in leaf apex, sometimes each with 3-10 additional veins outside, additional veins arcuate and connected by rib on leaf margin, transverse veins arcuate, numerous, slender, ± conspicuous abaxially, base attenuate and decurrent into petiole but sometimes subrounded, margin cartilaginous and involute, apex acuminate, acumen obtuse. Panicles axillary, solitary, few flowered, or many and clustered, subracemose or cymose, cymes 2-5-flowered; peduncle slender, 1.5-6 cm, peduncle and rachis glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Pedicels filiform, 6-20 mm, finely puberulent. Flowers white, ca. 6.5 mm. Perianth sericeous-puberulent outside and inside; perianth tube obconical, ca. 1.5 mm; perianth lobes ovate, acute, subequal, 4-5 × ca. 1 mm. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 3 mm (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or ca. 3.5 mm (of 3rd whorl); filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 sessile reniform glands at middle, others glandless; anthers of 1st and 2nd whorls ovate-oblong, slightly shorter than filaments, obtuse at apex, each with 4 introrse cells, anthers of 3rd whorl oblong, as long as 2/5 of filaments, each with 4 extrorse cells. Staminodes 3, ovate-cordate, ca. 2.8 mm, acute, stalked. Ovary ovoid, ca. 1 mm; style thick, ca. 3 mm; stigma broad, capitate. Mature fruit unknown. Perianth cup of immature fruit almost truncate but with very short lobes at apex. Fl. Apr-May, fr. after Jun.

● Sparse or dense forests on sunny sites of mountain slopes, watersides, valleys; (near sea level to) 800-2400 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan.

The dried bark is used medicinally to treat, for example, traumatic injuries and abdominal pain. The leafy branchlets and fruit contain essential oil, which is used as a fragrant ingredient in food or soap.