5. Litsea rubescens Lecomte, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., sér. 5. 5: 86. 1913.
红叶木姜子 hong ye mu jiang zi
Deciduous shrubs or small trees, 4-10 m tall. Young branchlets red, glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole 12-16 mm, red when young, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, lanceolate-elliptic, or rounded-elliptic, 4-6 × 1.7-3.5 cm, glabrous on both surfaces, pinninerved, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, prominent on both surfaces and red when young, base and apex attenuate or apex rounded-obtuse. Umbels axillary, male umbel 10-12-flowered; peduncle 5-10 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: pedicel 3-4 mm, with gray-yellow pubescence; perianth segments 6, yellow, broadly elliptic; fertile stamens 9; filaments short, glabrous, of 3rd whorls each with 2 small yellow glands at base; rudimentary pistil small. Fruit globose, ca. 8 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel ca. 8 mm, pilose. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Sep-Oct.
● Forests, forest margins, gaps of evergreen broad-leaved forests in valleys, thickets on mountain slopes; 700-3800 m. Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.
