紫花含笑 zi hua han xiao

Magnolia figo (Loureiro) Candolle var. crassipes (Y. W. Law) Figlar & Nooteboom; Michelia brevipes Y. K. Li & Wang; M. figo (Loureiro) Sprengel var. crassipes (Y. W. Law) B. L. Chen & Nooteboom.

Trees or shrubs, 2-5 m tall. Young twigs, buds, petioles, and peduncles densely reddish brown to yellow long tomentose. Bark grayish brown. Stipular scars as long as petiole. Petiole 2-4 mm; leaf blade narrowly oblong, obovate, narrowly obovate, or rarely narrowly elliptic, 7-13 × 2.5-4 cm, leathery, abaxially green and villous along veins, adaxially dark green, glabrous, and glossy, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, apex long caudate-cuspidate to acute. Flowers very fragrant. Tepals 6, purplish red to dark purple, long elliptic, 1.8-2 × 0.6-0.8 cm. Stamens ca. 1 cm; connective exserted into a short tip; anthers ca. 6 mm. Gynophore ca. 2 mm; gynoecium ca. 8 mm, not exceeding androecium, densely pilose; carpels ovoid, 3.5-4 mm, densely pilose; style 2 mm. Fruit 2.5-5 cm; brachyblast 1-2 × 0.3-0.5 cm; mature carpels more than 10, compressed ovoid to compressed globose, papillate and with trichomes. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, ravines; 300-1000 m. N Guangdong, NE Guangxi, S Hunan.

One of the co-authors (Nooteboom) considers that Michelia crassipes and M. skinneriana probably represent the wild forms of M. (Magnolia) figo and would be better treated as varieties of that species.

This species is grown as an ornamental.