薄叶龙船花 bao ye long chuan hua

Shrubs or small trees, to 5-6 m tall; branches glabrous. Leaves opposite; petiole 4-10 mm, glabrous; blade drying rather leathery, elliptic-oblong, elliptic, oblanceolate, obovate, or oblong-lanceolate, 10-17(-20) × 3-6(-9) cm, glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate to obtuse, apex obtuse to acute; secondary veins 8-12 pairs; stipules usually persistent, interpetiolar or usually united around stem, broadly ovate to triangular, 3-6 mm, glabrous, acute or with arista 0.3-3.5 mm. Inflorescences terminal, corymbiform to densely cymose, puberulent, subsessile to pedunculate; peduncle to 4.5 cm; branched portion 2.5-4 × 3-5 cm (not including corollas); bracts lanceolate, elliptic, or narrowly ligulate, 8-10 mm, obtuse to acute. Flowers sessile or subsessile. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium ellipsoid to subglobose, 1-1.5 mm; limb deeply lobed; lobes elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or oblanceolate, 4-6 mm, acute. Corolla white, outside glabrous; tube 20-30 mm, glabrous at throat; lobes narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 5-6 × 1.2-3 mm, acute to subacute. Drupe subglobose and often weakly didymous, 6-8 mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. Apr-Oct, fr. Sep.

Sparse forests at low elevations; 100-1100 m. Guangdong, Hainan, Yunnan [NE India (Assam), Indochina, Philippines, Thailand; widely cultivated in tropical zones worldwide].

The name of this species is sometimes spelled incorrectly as "findlaysoniana." This species is native in our region and also widely cultivated in warm tropical regions worldwide.