信宜苹婆 xin yi ping po

Shrubs, ca. 3.5 m tall. Branchlets slender, drying red-brown, sparsely stellate pilose. Leaves simple; petiole 1.5-2.5 cm, minutely puberulent, petiole and leaf blade with black dots; leaf blade oblanceolate or elliptic-obovate, 11-18 × 4-6.5 cm, abaxially and adaxially glabrous, with venation apparent, lateral veins 8-10 on each side of midrib, interlinked submarginally, base acute or cuneate, apex obtuse or shortly acute. Inflorescence racemose, slender, ca. 9 cm, densely yellow-brown puberulent. Pedicel 8-10 mm. Epicalyx lobes linear-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Calyx white to pink or orange-red, ca. 13 mm, exterior puberulent, interior hairy only on upper part of segments, tube campanulate, lobes ovate-lanceolate, slightly longer than tube, margins sparsely hairy. Male flowers: androgynophore slender. Female flowers: staminodes ca. 17. Ovary globose, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., densely puberulent; style hairy; stigma 5-divided. Fruits unknown. Fl. Mar-Apr.

● Dense forests in gullies and on slopes; 500-600 m. Guangdong (Xinyi), Guangxi (Daqing Shan).