黑叶楠 hei ye nan

Shrubs to small trees, 2-6 m tall. Branchlets subterete, blackish when dry, glabrous, lenticellate; older branchlets usually with leaf scars. Buds pubescent. Petiole 5-7 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, 3.5-9 × 1.5-3.5 cm, leathery, blackish when dry, abaxially glabrous or puberulent, adaxially glabrous and shiny, midrib abaxially raised, adaxially concave or plane, lateral veins 6-9 pairs, inconspicuous on both surfaces, veinlets dense, inconspicuous or conspicuous, foveolate, base cuneate, margin revolute, apex acuminate or shortly acuminate. Panicles axillary at upper part of newly sprouted branchlet, slender, 2.5-7(-11) cm, glabrous, branched at above middle of peduncle. Pedicel 4-7 mm. Flowers 3-3.5 mm. Perianth lobes ovate, subequal, 2.5-3 × ca. 2 mm, with 5-7 veins, glabrous outside, glabrate inside, apex round or obtuse. Filaments hairy, those of 3rd series with sessile glands at base. Staminodes triangular, stipitate, hairy. Ovary globose, together with style glabrous; stigma capitate. Fruit ovoid, ca. 1 cm × 8 mm; fruiting pedicel slightly thickened; persistent perianth lobes ovate, leathery, clasping base of fruit. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Limestone hills, thickets. SW Guangxi.