短穗天料木 duan sui tian liao mu

Shrubs, 1.5-2.5 m tall, glabrous throughout except for inflorescence; bark thin; branchlets black-brown, terete, slender, densely and irregularly striate. Petiole purple-black, very short, ca. 1 mm; leaf blade elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, (5-)7-9(-11) × 3.5-4.5 cm, thinly papery, midvein and lateral veins raised abaxially, slightly raised adaxially, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, anastomosing along margin, base slightly obtuse, margin sparsely crenulate, apex shortly acuminate or acute. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, 4-5 cm; rachis puberulous. Pedicels filiform, ca. 2 mm, articulate near apex, spreading pubescent. Flowers numerous, solitary or rarely 2-fasciculate along rachis, white, 6- or 7-merous. Calyx tube narrowly obconic, 3-3.5 mm, longitudinally canaliculate, spreading pubescent; sepals oblanceolate-linear, 3-3.5 × ca. 0.6 mm, conspicuously 3-veined, outside subglabrous, inside pubescent, margin ciliate, apex mucronate. Petals oblanceolate-linear, 4-4.5 × 1-1.5 mm, conspicuously 3-veined, outside subglabrous, inside pubescent, hairs spreading and long, margin ciliate, apex slightly obtuse or acute. Disk glands nearly square, hairy. Stamen filaments ca. 4 mm. Styles 3, glabrous or nearly so; placentas 3, each with 4 ovules. Fl. Aug-May, fr. Feb-Nov.

● Sparse forest margins; low elevations. Guangdong, Guangxi.

Of the present authors, Yang considers Homalium breviracemosum to be a synonym of H. cochinchinense; Zmarzty has seen no material of H. breviracemosum.