长花龙血树 chang hua long xue shu

Pleomele angustifolia (Roxburgh) N. E. Brown.

Plants shrubby, rhizomatous, 1--3 m tall. Stems simple or few branched; internodes often longer than wide; bark grayish, smooth. Leaves spaced along distal part of stems, subsessile or indistinctly petiolate; petiole to 1 cm, base not completely covering internode; leaf blade nearly sword-shaped to linear-oblanceolate, 20--45 × 1.5--5.5 cm. Inflorescence terminal, branched, 30--50 cm; rachis glabrous. Flowers in clusters of 2 or 3; pedicel 7--8 mm, articulate distally or near apex. Perianth greenish white, 1.9--2.3 cm; tube 7--8 mm; lobes 1.1--1.6 cm. Filaments filiform; anthers 2--3 mm. Style 5--8 × as long as ovary. Berry orange, globose, 0.8--1.2 cm in diam., 1- or 2-seeded. Fl. Mar--May, fr. Jun--Aug. 2 n = 40.

Forests, thickets. Hainan, S Taiwan (including Lan Yu), S Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India (including Andaman Islands), Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; N Australia].

Dracaena menglaensis G. Z. Ye (in G. Z. Ye et al., Acta Bot. Yunnan. 14: 30. 1992) was described from two collections from the same locality in S Yunnan (Mengla Xian). It is said to differ from D. angustifolia in its longer, sword-shaped leaves with bases completely covering internodes, perianth lobes tinged reddish purple distally, and 3-ribbed berry with 4 small, apical projections. However, in all other features, it falls within the range of variation of D. angustifolia and is probably best regarded as a robust plant of that species.