美丽火桐 mei li huo tong

Erythropsis pulcherrima (H. H. Hsue) H. H. Hsue.

Deciduous trees, up to 18 m tall; bark gray-white or brown-black. Branchlets purple when desiccate, glabrate. Leaves heteromorphic; petiole 6-17 cm, glabrate; leaf blade 3-5-palmate or entire, 7-23 × 7-9 cm, middle lobe up to 14 cm, lateral lobes to 9 cm, papery, stellate puberulent at base of midrib only, basal veins 5, prominent on both surfaces, base truncate or subcordate, apex caudate. Inflorescence cymose, paniculate, 8-14 cm, densely brown-red stellate hairy. Pedicel 3-4 mm. Calyx nearly campanulate, ca. 16 × 8 mm, apically 5-lobed, abaxially densely brownish red stellate hairy, adaxially villous around base, lobes triangular, ca. 3 mm. Male flower: androgynophore ca. 24 mm, stellate hairy. Anthers 15-25, in capitate cluster, enclosing 5 sterile, nearly free, carpels. Female flower and fruit unknown. Fl. Apr-May.

● Forests, stream valleys. E Hainan.