川陕梾木 chuan shan lai mu

Swida koehneana (Wangerin) Soják.

Trees 6–10 m tall. Bark dark brown; young branches purplish or reddish green, slender, ± 4-angled (or ridged), pubescent with grayish appressed trichomes; old branches yellowish brown or grayish brown, glabrous, with sparsely scattered yellowish white narrowly elliptic lenticels. Leaves opposite; petiole 1.2–2.2 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 3.3–8 × 2.3–4.5 cm, thickly papery, abaxially grayish green, with appressed grayish white short thin trichomes, veins 4, small veins inconspicuously reticulate, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, slightly oblique, apex acuminate or extended acuminate. Corymbose cymes loose and spreading, ca. 6 cm wide, with branches slightly arched inward (bent toward center), pubescent with grayish appressed trichomes. Pedicels 0.5–3 mm. Flowers white, ca. 7 mm in diam. Calyx lobes triangular, ca. 0.4 mm, longer than disk. Petals ligulate-oblong, ca. 4.5 × 0.9 mm. Stamens ca. 4 mm, shorter than petals; anthers light yellow, oblong-ovate. Style clavate, ca. 3.8 mm; stigma capitate, not broader than style. Fruit ovoid-globose, ca. 5 × 6 mm; stones subovoid, ca. 4 × 5 mm. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Aug.

Mixed forests in valleys and on slopes; 1700–2200 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan.

Cornus koehneana is known from only a few specimens, which appear to be similar to C. walteri. Examination of more material, especially living plants, is needed to determine the relationship to C. walteri.