蜂房叶山胡椒 feng fang ye shan hu jiao

Evergreen trees, up to 25 cm tall. Bark brown, distinctly lenticellate. Branchlets terete; 1-year-old branchlets gradually glabrate, brownish and slightly convex lenticellate; current year branchlets densely ferruginous tomentose. Terminal bud ovate, ca. 7 mm; bud scales densely ferruginous pubescent on outer surface, especially on keel, glabrous on inner surface. Leaves alternate; petiole 1.2-2 cm, densely ferruginous tomentose; leaf blade greenish and gray-brown when dry abaxially, dark green and slightly red-brown when dry adaxially, narrowly elliptic, 7.5-20.5 × 3-8 cm, subleathery, reticulate veins densely ferruginous villous abaxially, along midrib and lateral veins pubescent adaxially, pinninerved, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, reticulate veins convex, honeycombed adaxially, base cuneate or subrounded, apex shortly acuminate. Umbels 1-3, inserted at axillary short branchlets, each umbel 12-flowered; short branchlets 0.5-1.2 cm, densely ferruginous tomentose; peduncles more than 1.5 cm, densely ferruginous tomentose; involucral bracts 4. Male flowers: tepals 6, broadly ovate, equal in size, ca. 3 × 2 mm, villous on both surfaces, apex acute or obtuse; filaments 2-glandular at base in 3rd whorl; glands reniform, subsessile; reduced pistil ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous. Fruit subglobose, green when young. Fl. Nov-Dec, fr. May.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests on mountain slopes; 1400-2100 m. SE Yunnan.