笔罗子 bi luo zi

Trees to 7 m tall, evergreen. Buds, young branches, abaxial midveins, and inflorescences ferruginous lanuginous, pilose, or tomentose, pubescence persistent after 2 or 3 years. Leaves simple; petiole 1.5-4 cm; leaf blade oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, 8-25 × 2.5-4.5 cm, leathery, abaxially ferruginous pubescent, sparsely pilose, or densely tomentose, adaxially glabrous except on midvein and lateral veins, lateral veins 9-18 pairs, base attenuate from 1/3 or 1/2 downward to base, margin coarsely serrate, sometimes entire, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate. Panicle terminal, 10-30 cm; axis erect, triangular, branched 3 times. Pedicel ca. 2 mm. Flowers dense on tertiary branches, (2-)3-4 mm in diam. Sepals 4 or 5, ovate or suborbicular, 1-1.5 mm, pubescent at abaxial base, ciliate. Petals: 3 outer ones white or light yellow, suborbicular, 2-2.5 mm; 2 inner ones bifid to half at an acute angle; lobes acute, apex ciliate. Fertile stamens 1.2-1.5 mm. Ovary glabrous; style ca. 2 × as long as ovary. Drupe globose, 5-8 mm; endocarp oblique, convex, with scattered netlike strips, midrib slightly prominent. Fl. summer, fr. Sep-Oct.

Broad-leaved forests, mountain forests; below 1500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, S Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Laos, Philippines, S Vietnam].

The hard wood is used for walking sticks, and the seeds for oil.