球壳柯 qiu qiao ke

Pasania sphaerocarpa Hickel & A. Camus, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 29: 603. 1923.

Trees 10-20 m tall. Branchlets dark gray when dry, glabrous. Petiole 1.5-2 cm; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 12-20 × 4-7 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially glaucous and with adherent, waxy scalelike trichomes, adaxially glabrous and surface of young leaves oily glossy when dry, base cuneate and decurrent on petiole, margin entire, apex acuminate to acute; secondary veins 14-18 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially slender, evident to inconspicuous, subparallel. Male inflorescences in a panicle, sometimes solitary in axils of leaves. Female inflorescences 10-20 cm; cupules in clusters of (2 or)3, rarely solitary near base of rachis; stalk of cupule clusters 3-7 mm, with tiny triangular bracts. Infructescence rachis 7-12 mm thick. Cupule globose to ± depressed globose, 1.5-2 cm in diam., completely enclosing nut, outside grayish puberulent, wall ca. 0.5 mm thick and crustaceous; bracts triangular, small, lax. Nut depressed globose, 1.2-1.6 × 1.4-1.9 cm, densely tawny scurfy; scar 0.8-1.2 cm in diam., concave. Fl. Dec-Jan, fr. Sep-Oct of following year.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 600-1300 m. W Guangxi, S Yunnan [Vietnam]