香面叶 xiang mian ye

Daphnidium caudatum Nees in Wallich, Pl. Asiat. Rar. 2: 63. 1831; Benzoin caudatum (Nees) Kuntze; Lindera caudata (Nees) J. D. Hooker.

Shrubs or small trees, 2-12(-20) m tall. Bark black-gray. Branchlets slender; young branchlets yellow-brown pubescent, becoming glabrous and black-brown when old, thinly longitudinally striate, lenticellate, lenticels oblong. Terminal bud ovoid, 2-4 mm. Leaves alternate; petiole 5-13 mm, densely yellow-brown pubescent; leaf blade abaxially nearly glaucous when dry, adaxially brown or green-brown, narrowly ovate or oblong-lanceolate, (4.5-)5-13 × (1.5-)2-4 cm, thinly leathery, densely yellow-brown pubescent on both surfaces but more densely so abaxially when young, glabrate except along midrib when old, triplinerved, basal lateral veins arcuate-ascendant toward leaf apex from 1-3 mm above base, midrib and lateral veins concave-convex, base broadly cuneate or rounded, apex caudate-acuminate. Pseudoumbels 1-flowered, sessile, 2-8 together along a slender leafless short shoot, elongate in fruiting stage, each pseudo-umbel with 1 bract and 2 involucral bracts; in- volucral bracts broadly ovate or suborbicular, yellow-brown pubescent outside; bracts broadly ovate, yellow-brown pubescent, apex acute. Male flowers: pedicels ca. 1.5 mm; perianth segments 6, subequal, narrowly ovate, 2.8-3 × 1.5-2 mm, pubescent at base on both surfaces, apex obtuse; stamens 9, subequal, 4.5-6.5 mm; filaments villous on lower parts, those of 3rd whorl 2-glandular at base; glands orbicular-reniform, subsessile; pistillode ca. 3 mm; ovary oblong; style slender, appressed pubescent at lower part; stigma 3-fid. Female flowers: perianth segments 6, ovate-oblong, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, yellow-brown pubescent on base of both surfaces, apex acute; staminodes 9, fasciated, 1.5-2 mm, densely yellow-brown pubescent, interior 6 shorter and 2-glandular at filament base; glands free, orbicular-reniform; ovary ovoid or subglobose, ca. 2 mm; style slender, ca. 2 mm; stigma peltate, papillose. Fruits globose, 5-6(-7) mm in diam., black-purple at maturity, inserted on persistent perianth tube with 6 perianth segments. Fl. Oct-Apr of next year, fr. Mar-Oct.

Thickets, sparse forests, roadsides, forest margins; 700-2300 m. W Guangxi, S Yunnan [India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

The seed oil is used as a lubricant and for making soap. The branchlets, leaves, and pericarp may yield essential oil.