猪血木 zhu xue mu

Trees 15-25 m tall. Bark grayish brown or grayish black. Year-old branchlets pale grayish brown; current year branchlets reddish brown, slender, terete, glabrous; terminal buds glabrous. Petiole 3-5 mm, adaxially canaliculate, sparsely pilose, glabrescent; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, or oblong-elliptic, 5-9 × 1.7-3 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially slightly elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 5 or 6 on each side of midvein, abaxially raised, and adaxially impressed to raised, reticulate veins visible on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate and with an obtuse tip. Flowers 5-6 mm in diam. Pedicel 4-6 mm, sparsely pilose, glabrescent; bracteoles broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm, outside glabrous, margin ciliolate, apex rounded. Sepals 5, leathery, broadly ovate to suborbicular, ca. 2 mm, outside glabrous, inside puberulent,
margin ciliolate, apex rounded and with a retuse tip. Petals white, obovate to obovate-elliptic, ca. 4 mm, glabrous, apex rounded. Stamens 25-28, 1.5-2.2 mm; filaments glabrous; anthers ovate, ca. 0.6 mm, with filiform trichomes. Ovary globose, glabrous, 3-loculed with 6-8 seeds per locule; style ca. 3 mm. Fruit bluish black when mature, ovoid to subglobose, 3-4 mm in diam., with 2 or 3 seeds per locule. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Oct-Nov. 2n = 46*.

● Forests on mountain slopes or in valleys; 100-400 m. Guangdong (Yangchun), Guangxi (Bama, Pingnan).