长柱瑞香 chang zhu rui xiang

Shrubs evergreen, 0.3-1(-2) m tall, erect. Older branches with leaf scars; branches yellowish green or grayish green, turning blackish brown, slender. Leaves alternate; petiole 1-2 mm, densely white sericeous; leaf blade elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 1.5-4.5 × 0.6-1.8 cm, papery or membranous, abaxially white sericeous, adaxially more sparsely so, base broadly cuneate, apex obtuse or subacute, apiculate; veins 5 or 6 pairs. Inflorescences axillary, 3-7-flowered; peduncle very short to almost absent, bracts usually absent, sometimes small and leaflike. Pedicel absent. Calyx white; tube cylindric, 5-9 mm, exterior appressed yellow- or white sericeous; lobes 4, broadly ovate, 1-3 × ca. 0.5 mm, abaxially densely white sericeous, apex obtuse. Stamens 8, inserted above middle of calyx tube; filaments short; anthers oblong, ca. 0.6 mm. Disk acuminate, lateral to ovary. Ovary ellipsoid, sessile or with a short stipe, apex sericeous; style slender, ca. 4 mm; stigma capitate. Drupe semidry, ovoid, ca. 6 mm, densely pubescent. Fl. Feb-Apr.

● Forests at low elevations; 200-700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi.

This species was first misidentified (Bentham, Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 5: 196. 1853) as Daphne fortunei (i.e., D. genkwa in this treatment).