大果五月茶 da guo wu yue cha

Trees up to 10 m tall; young twigs densely yellowish tomentose. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 7 mm, caducous; petiole 15-35 mm, densely yellowish tomentose; leaf blade oblong, more rarely oblong-elliptic or -obovate, (9-)11-19(-27) × (4-)5.5-7.5(-12) cm, papery, adaxially glabrous except for ± pubescent midvein, abaxially pubescent, particularly along veins, adaxially shiny or dull, drying reddish, abaxially dull, drying reddish or olive green, base obtuse, more rarely rounded or acute, apex acuminate or acute; domatia absent; midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 5-7(-9) pairs, tertiary veins mainly reticulate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, axes yellowish tomentose, males 10-14 cm, 1- to 3-branched, females and fruiting 9-17(-28) cm, unbranched or 1-branched. Male flowers: pedicels 0.5-0.8 mm; sepals (3 or)4, free, 1-1.2 mm, deltoid, entire, pubescent on both sides, apex acute; disk annular and 4-lobed, lobes extending between filaments inward to pistillode, glabrous; stamens 4, ca. 2.5 mm. Female flowers: sepals 4, 1.5-1.8 mm, otherwise as in male; disk glabrous; stigmas (3 or)4. Fruiting pedicels (3-)5-7 mm; drupes ellipsoid, laterally compressed, 10-12 × 6-7 mm, sparsely pilose; style terminal. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Valley forests; 600-900 m. Guangdong, Hainan.

The second author has not seen any female flowering specimens, stipules, or any material from Guangdong province.

Specimens from Thailand referred to by Airy Shaw (Kew Bull. 26: 359. 1972) as Antidesma cf. nienkui Merrill & Chun are A. bunius var. pubescens. Apart from the considerable geographic disjunction, A. bunius var. pubescens differs from A. nienkui in the shorter petioles and fused sepals. Both taxa, however, have a similar dense reddish indumentum in most parts, which distinguishes them from the nearly glabrous A. bunius var. bunius.