野含笑 ye han xiao

Michelia amoena Q. F. Zheng & M. M. Lin; M. linyaoensis D. C. Zhang & S. B. Zhou.

Trees, to 15 m tall. Young twigs, buds, petioles, leaf blade midrib abaxially, and peduncles densely brown villous. Bark grayish white, smooth. Stipular scars as long as petiole. Petiole 2-4 mm; leaf blade narrowly obovate-elliptic, oblanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 5-11(-14) × 1.5-3.5(-4) cm, leathery, abaxially sparsely brown villous, adaxially dark green and glossy, secondary veins 10-13 on each side of midvein, reticulate veins sparse and prominent on both surfaces when dry, base cuneate, apex long caudate-acuminate. Flowers fragrant. Peduncle slender. Tepals 6, pale yellow, obovate, 1.6-2 cm; outer tepals with brown trichomes at base. Stamens 6-10 mm; connective exserted into a ca. 0.5 mm mucro; anthers 4-5 mm, latrorse. Gynophore 4-7 mm, with dense brown trichomes; gynoecium ca. 6 mm; carpels with dense brown trichomes. Fruit 4-7 cm, usually curved or shortened due to carpels partly undeveloped; peduncle slender; mature carpels black, globose to ellipsoid, 1-1.5 cm, beak mucronate. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 38*.

● Forests, ravines, slopes; below 1200 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.

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

"Michelia microphylla Y. W. Law & R. Z. Zhou" (in Y. H. Liu, Magnolias China, 296. 2004) belongs here but was not validly published because no Latin description or diagnosis was provided and no type was indicated (Vienna Code, Art. 36.1 and 37.1).

This species is grown as an ornamental.