穗序鹅掌柴 sui xu e zhang chai

Heptapleurum delavayi Franchet, J. Bot. (Morot) 10: 307. 1896; Agalma delavayi (Franchet) Hutchinson; A. discolor (Merrill) Hutchinson; H. dunnianum H. Léveillé; Schefflera delavayi var. ochrascens Handel-Mazzetti; S. discolor Merrill; S. megalobotrya Harms.

Trees, to 8 m tall, hermaphroditic. Petiole (10-)15-60 cm; petiolules 1-15 cm; leaflets (4 or)5, elliptic to ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 8-30(-35) × 3-12 cm, papery to leathery, abaxially densely gray-white or yellow-brown stellate tomentose, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 7-13 pairs, tertiary veins indistinct, base acute to obtuse or rounded, margin entire to sparsely and irregularly dentate (incised or usually pinnately lobed in young plants), apex abruptly acute to acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, a panicle of spikes, gray-white tomentose; primary axis 25-80 cm; secondary axes to ca. 30 cm. Flowers sessile. Calyx tomentose, distinctly 5-toothed. Ovary 5-carpellate; styles united into a column. Fruit globose, 3.5-4 mm in diam., 5-ribbed when dry; styles ca. 2 mm; pedicels to ca. 1 mm. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Jan. 2n = 48.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, wet forest margins, and as scattered trees in valleys or on stream banks; 600-3000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Vietnam].

This species is used medicinally.