黑壳楠 hei ke nan

Actinodaphne crassa Handel-Mazzetti; Benzoin grandifolium Rehder; B. oldhamii (Hemsley) Rehder; B. pricei (Hayata) Kamikoti; B. touyunense (H. Léveillé) Rehder; B. touyunense f. megaphyllum (Hemsley) Rehder; B. touyunense f. trichocladum Rehder; Lindera megaphylla f. touyunensis (H. Léveillé) Rehder; L. megaphylla f. trichoclada (Rehder) W. C. Cheng; L. oldhamii Hemsley; L. pricei Hayata; Litsea touyunensis H. Léveillé.

Trees evergreen, 3-15(-25) m tall, more than 35 cm d.b.h. Bark gray-black. Branchlets terete, robust, purple-black, glabrous or pubescent, with subrounded and longitudinally dehiscent lenticels. Terminal bud ovate, ca. 1.5 cm; bud scales white puberulent outside. Leaves alternate; petiole 1.5-3 cm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade green and shiny abaxially, greenish white adaxially, oblanceolate to obovate-oblong, sometimes narrowly ovate, 10-23 cm, leathery, glabrous on both surfaces or laxly or densely pubescent abaxially, later glabrate, pinninerved, lateral veins 15-21 pairs, base attenuate, apex acute or acuminate. Umbel inserted in both sides of short branchlet, many flowered, with 16 male flowers and 12 female flowers; short branchlets axillary, ca. 3.5 mm, with terminal bud; peduncles of male inflorescence 1-1.5 cm and of female inflorescence ca. 6 mm, both densely yellow-brown or nearly ferruginous puberulent. Male flowers yellow-green, ca. 6 mm, pedicellate; tepals 6, elliptic, outer 3 ca. 4.5 × 2.8 mm, laxly yellow-brown puberulent on lower and abaxial parts, inner 3 rather short; filaments laxly pubescent, 2-glandular at base in 3rd whorl; glands funnelform, ca. 2 mm, stipitate; reduced pistil ca. 2.5 mm, glabrous; ovary ovate; style slender; stigma indistinct. Female flowers yellow-green, 1.5-3 mm, pedicellate, densely yellow-brown pubescent; tepals 6, linear-spatulate, ca. 2.5 × 1 mm, yellow-brown pubescent outside on lower part or along keel; reduced stamens 9; anthers linear or clavate, barbate at base, 2-glandular at middle of filament in 3rd whorl; glands funnelform; ovary ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous; style very slender, ca. 4.5 mm; stigma peltate, papillose. Fruit ellipsoid or ovate, ca. 1.8 × 1.3 cm, purple-black at maturity, glabrous; stipes ca. 1.5 cm, scabrous; persistent hypocarpium cup-shaped, ca. 8 mm × 1.5 cm, entire, slightly sinuous. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. Sep-Dec.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests or thickets in wet places on mountain slopes or in valleys; 1600-2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.

Two sympatric forms have been recognized: f. megaphylla, with branchlets and leaf blade glabrous, and f. touyunensis (毛黑壳楠 mao hei qiao nan), with branchlets and leaf blade ± pubescent, later at least slightly pubescent on the veins.

The wood is used in woodwork and as building materials. The leaves and pericarp are processed for their aromatic oil. The seed oil is used for making soap.