宜昌木姜子 yi chang mu jiang zi

Deciduous shrubs or small trees, up to 8 m tall. Branchlets glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole 5-15 mm, glabrous; leaf blade obovate or rotund, 2-5 × 2-3 cm, glaucous, barbate in axils of veins, and becoming glabrous abaxially, glabrous adaxially, sometimes glandular-domed in axils of veins abaxially, pinninerved, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, base cuneate, apex acute or rounded-obtuse. Umbels solitary or 2-fascicled, male umbel 9-flowered; peduncle ca. 5 mm, glabrous. Pedicel ca. 5 mm, sericeous-pubescent. Perianth segments 6, yellow, obovate or rotund, 4-nerved outside. Male flowers: fertile stamens 9; filaments glabrous, of 3rd whorls each with 2 yellow small glands at base; rudimentary pistil small, glabrous. Fruit subglobose, ca. 5 mm in diam., black at maturity; fruiting pedicel 1-1.5 cm, glabrous, slightly thickened at apex. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Thickets, dense forests on mountain slopes; 300-2200 m. SW and W Hubei, W Hunan, E and NE Sichuan.