无叶柽柳 wu ye cheng liu

Thuya aphylla Linnaeus, Cent. I Pl. 32. 1755.

Trees or large shrubs. Young branches smooth. Leaves sessile, vaginate, ca. 2 mm, base amplexicaul, apex acute. Racemes 3-6 cm × 4-5 mm; when flowering in spring, racemes solitary; flowers blooming more commonly in summer, then racemes on new branches; flowers subsessile; bracts triangular or broadly triangular, exceeding pedicels, base slightly amplexicaul, apex acuminate. Pedicels much shorter than calyx. Calyx 5-fid, ca. 1.5 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse; outer 2 lobes slightly smaller, broadly ovate or broadly elliptic, abaxially slightly carinate; inner 3 larger, broadly elliptic or suborbicular. Petals 5, elliptic, oblong, or ovate-elliptic, 2-2.3 mm, deciduous, sometimes 1 or 2 persistent in fruit. Disk 5-lobed; lobes emarginate at apex or deeply divided into 10 lobules. Stamens 5; filaments inserted between disk lobes. Fl. Sep-Oct and rarely in spring. 2n = 24*.

Cultivated. Taiwan [native to N Africa and SW Asia].