云南旌节花 yun nan jing jie hua

Stachyurus callosus C. Y. Wu ex S. K. Chen; S. esquirolii H. Léveillé; S. oblongifolius F. T. Wang & T. Tang; S. yun nanensis var. pedicellatus Rehder.

Shrubs evergreen, 1-3 m tall. Bark dark gray. Petiole 1-2.5 cm, stout; leaf blade elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, rarely obovate-lanceolate, 7-15 × 2-4 cm, leathery or thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein conspicuously raised abaxially, lateral veins 5-7-paired, inconspicuous on both sides, base cuneate or obtuse, margin serrulate throughout, apex acute, acuminate, caudate-acuminate, or obtuse. Spikes 12-22-flowered, 3-8 cm; peduncles short, 5-10 mm. Flowers subsessile; bract triangular, ca. 1.5 mm, apex acute; bracteoles triangular-ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, apex acute. Sepals ovate-orbicular, ca. 3.5 mm. Petals yellow to white, obovate-orbicular, 5.5-6.5 × ca. 4 mm, apex obtuse. Ovary bottle-shaped, glabrous; style ca. 6 mm. Fruit globose, 6-7 mm in diam. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 24*.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests on mountain slopes, thickets at forest margins; 800-1800 m. Chongqing, N Guangdong (Yangshan), SW Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, W Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan [N Vietnam].

This fairly widely distributed species is characterized by having leaves elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, and leathery or thinly leathery. Plants from Gongshan, NW Yunnan, have leaves relatively long caudate, and those from Emei Shan, Sichuan, have somewhat larger leaves. Some plants with obovate-lanceolate leaves look very similar to Stachyurus obovatus, and differ only in having relatively shortly caudate, narrower leaves, with their margins serrulate throughout.

The length of the fruit stalk shows some variation between and within populations. However, the difference is so tenuous that it seems not justifiable to describe the plants with somewhat longer fruit stalks as any independent taxonomic entity.