风吹楠 feng chui nan

Myristica amygdalina Wallich, Pl. Asiat. Rar. 1: 79. 1830; Horsfieldia prunoides C. Y. Wu; H. tonkinensis Lecomte.

Trees to 25 m tall, 20-40 cm d.b.h.; bark grayish white; branches spreading, rarely drooping; twigs brown, nearly glabrous, with light brown ovate lenticels. Leaves distichous or in 3-5 rows; petioles 1-2 cm, pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade narrowly elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 9-23 × 2.5-7.5 cm, papery, both surfaces early glabrescent, base attenuate to broadly cuneate, apex acute or acuminate; lateral veins 7-14 pairs, tertiary veins obscure. Plants dioecious. Male inflorescences axillary or in axils of deciduous leaves, paniculate, 8-15 cm, nearly glabrous; bracts elliptic, minute, pubescent, caducous. Male flowers nearly clustered; buds (sub)globose, 1.5-2 mm in diam., as long as pedicels, glabrous; perianth 2- or 3(or 4)-lobed, at anthesis cleft to ca. 1/2; synandrium globose or depressed globose, sessile; anthers 8-15, free. Female inflorescences often inserted on older branches, 3-6 cm, glabrous; peduncles stout. Female flowers ellipsoid, 2-3 mm; ovary ovoid, glabrous; style absent; stigma lobes rounded. Infructescences 5-10 cm. Fruit orange, ovoid or ellipsoid, 3-3.5(-4) × 1.5-2.5 cm, base sometimes narrowed; pericarp fleshy, 2-3 mm thick. Seeds glossy, light reddish brown when dry, ovoid, smooth; aril orange, completely enclosing seeds, sometimes very shortly imbricately laciniate. Fl. Aug-Oct, fr. Mar-May of following year.

Dense forests on mountain slopes and in ravines, sparse hilly forests; 100-1200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Bangladesh, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

In FRPS (30(2): 204. 1979), this species was misidentified as Horsfieldia glabra (Blume) Warburg (Myristica glabra Blume). True H. glabra is distributed in Indonesia.

The above description and distribution apply to Horsfieldia amygdalina var. amygdalina. Two other varieties occur outside of China: var. lanata W. J. de Wilde in Cambodia and Thailand and var. macrocarpa W. J. de Wilde in Thailand.

The seeds contain 29%-33% fat, which is used in industry.