莲华柃 lian hua ling

Shrubs or small trees. Branchlets pale grayish brown, ribbed, glabrous. Petiole 5-6 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong, elliptic, or oblanceolate, 7-8(-11) × 2.5-3.5 cm, leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 12-15 on each side of midvein, abaxially raised, and adaxially impressed, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin revolute when dry, entire in basal 1/2, and apically serrulate, apex caudate-acuminate and with an obtuse tip. Flowers axillary, 2-4 in a cluster. Pedicel 1-3 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles very small; sepals suborbicular, ca. 3.5 mm, glabrous; petals oblong, 4-5 mm; stamens ca. 10; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles very small; sepals ovate to ovate-orbicular, ca. 2 mm, glabrous; petals obovate, apex rounded; ovary globose, glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 2 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Feb-Apr.

● Forests. Taiwan (Taizhong).