浆果楝 jiang guo lian

Melia baccifera Roth, Nov. Pl. Sp. 215. 1821; Cipadessa baccifera var. sinensis Rehder & E. H. Wilson; C. cinerascens (Pellegrin) Handel-Mazzetti; C. fruticosa Blume; C. fruticosa var. cinerascens Pellegrin; C. sinensis (Rehder & E. H. Wilson) E. Salisbury; Rhus blinii H. Léveillé.

Shrubs or trees, usually 1-4(-10) m tall. Bark coarse. Young branches grayish brown, ribbed, covered with yellow pubescence and sparse grayish white lenticels. Leaves 8-30 cm; petiole and rachis cylindric, glabrous or covered with yellow trichomes; leaflets usually 9-13, opposite; leaflet blades ovate to ovoid-oblong, 3.5-10 × 1.5-5 cm, smaller basally than apically on rachis, papery, both surfaces covered with appressed yellowish gray pubescence or abaxially only pubescent along veins and adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, base oblique and rounded, cuneate, or broadly cuneate, margin entire or apical half serrate, apex acute, acuminate, or mucronate. Thyrses 8-15 cm, branches corymbose; peduncle and branches covered with yellow pubescence. Flowers 3-4 mm in diam. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm. Calyx short, outside covered with sparse yellow pubescence; lobes broadly triangular. Petals white or yellow, linear to oblong-elliptic, 2-3.5 mm, outside covered with sparse appressed pubescence. Outside of staminal tube and filaments glabrous, inside covered with trichomes; anthers inserted between 2 lobes of filament tip, ovoid, glabrous. Fruit purple to black when mature, globose, 4-5 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-Oct, fr. Aug-Feb.

Sparse forests and thickets in hilly regions; 200-2100 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

The leaves and roots are used medicinally; oil from the seeds is used for soap-making.