华南桂 hua nan gui

Cinnamomum cassia (Linnaeus) D. Don subsp. pseudomelastoma J. C. Liao et al.; C. pseudomelastoma (J. C. Liao et al.) J. C. Liao.

Trees, 5-8(-16) m tall, up to 40 cm d.b.h. Bark gray-brown. One-year-old branchlets dark brown, terete, ca. 3 mm wide, longitudinally striate, puberulent; current year branchlets ± depressed, slightly angled, longitudinally striate and sulcate, shortly gray-brown appressed puberulent. Terminal buds small, ovoid, 3-4 mm; bud scales compact, densely covered with gray-brown short and appressed puberulent hairs. Leaves subopposite or alternate; petiole 1-1.5 mm, plano-convex, densely covered with gray-brown short and appressed puberulent hairs; leaf blade greenish and opaque abaxially, green and opaque or slightly shiny adaxially, elliptic, old leaves on 1-year-old branchlets 14-16 × 6-7.5(-8) cm, new leaves on current year branchlets 6.5-8.5(-12) × 3-4(-5) cm, all thinly leathery or leathery, densely covered with gray-brown short and appressed puberulent hairs abaxially, grayish brown puberulent when young but glabrate when mature adaxially, trinerved or triplinerved, midrib and basal lateral veins very elevated abaxially, slightly elevated adaxially, basal lateral veins arising at or up to 5 mm above leaf base, slightly arcuate-ascendant and evanescent below leaf apex, always with 8-10 additional veins outside, these veins ± conspicuous abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially, arcuately interconnected near leaf margin, transverse veins undulate, subparallel at a distance of 2-3 mm, elevated abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially, base obtuse, margin cartilaginous and involute, apex acute, acumen 5-10(-15) mm. Panicle axillary on current year branchlet, 9-13 × 5-7 cm, triplicate-branched, apex of branchlet generally bearing a 3-flowered cyme; peduncle (3-)6-7.5 cm, peduncle and rachis slightly depressed and densely covered with gray-brown short and appressed puberulent hairs. Pedicels ca. 2 mm, densely grayish brown puberulent. Flowers yellow-green, ca. 4.5 mm. Perianth densely gray-brown puberulent outside and inside; perianth tube obconical, ca. 2 mm; perianth lobes ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, outer ones ca. 1.5 mm wide, inner ones narrower, all acute. Fertile stamens 9; filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 sessile suborbicular glands, others glandless; anthers villous abaxially, 4-celled; cells introrse (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or extrorse (of 3rd whorl). Staminodes 3, triangular, ca. 1 mm, stalked, villous. Ovary globose, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; style ca. 1.5 mm; stigma discoid. Fruit ellipsoid, ca. 1 × 0.9 cm; perianth cup in fruit shallowly cupuliform, ca. 2.5 mm and up to 5 mm in diam., shallowly dentate at top margin, teeth truncate. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, thickets on mountain slopes, along streams; 600-700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, SE Guizhou, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.

Cinnamomum austrosinense shares similar uses with C. cassia and may represent the wild form of that species.