美丽桐 mei li tong

Gmelina speciosissima D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 104. 1825; Wightia alpinii Craib; W. elliptica Merrill; W. gigantea Wallich; W. laceiCraib.

Trees or semiepiphytic pseudovines, to 15 m tall. Bark grayish white. Branches somewhat pendulous, brown, lenticellate, stellate hairy when young. Petiole terete, ca. 2 cm, adaxially grooved; leaf blade often oblong to elliptic, to 30 X 15 cm, abaxially sparsely gray-yellow stellate pilose, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute. Thyrses more than 30 cm, narrow, sparsely rusty stellate hairy; cymes often 3-flowered; peduncle to 1 cm. Pedicel short. Bracteoles 2, small. Calyx to 8 mm, outside stellate hairy; lobes orbicular to broadly ovate. Corolla reddish, to 3.5 cm; tube compressed, distally gradually enlarged, outside stellate hairy. Stamens 4; filaments glabrous. Ovary ovoid-globose, glabrous, obscurely 6-striate. Capsule oblong-ovoid to narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 4 cm. Seeds narrowly winged. Fl. Sep-Oct.

Forests, beside rice fields, rocks; below 2500 m. C to S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].