美叶柯 mei ye ke

Trees to 28 m tall. Young branchlets sparsely puberulent above middle; branchlets of last year growth blackish, lenticellate. Petiole 2.5-5 cm; leaf blade broadly elliptic, ovate, or oblong, 8-15 × 4-9 cm, rigidly leathery, abaxially densely tawny to rusty scurfy when young and ± glaucous with age, adaxially glabrous, base subrounded to slightly auriculate and sometimes asymmetric, apex acute to acuminate with a caudate tip; secondary veins 7-11 on each side of midvein, adaxially impressed, abruptly curving, obscure near margin; tertiary veins abaxially slender, evident, subparallel. Male inflorescences in a panicle, less than 3 cm. Female inflorescences to 20 cm; rachis 5-6 mm thick; cupules in clusters of 3-5, rarely solitary on basal part of rachis. Cupule 0.5-1 × 1.5-2.5 cm, shallowly cupular, enclosing 1/6-1/5 of nut, wall to 3 mm thick and thickly woody near base. Nut 1.5-2 × 1.8-2.6 cm, often slightly white farinose, apex flat with a ± concave to shortly pointed center, wall ca. 1 mm thick; scar 1-1.4 cm in diam., concave. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep of following year.

* Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 500-1200 m. SW Fujian, SW Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, S Hunan, SW Jiangxi