台琼海桐 tai qiong hai tong

Pittosporum formosanum Hayata in Matsumura & Hayata, J. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo 22: 32. 1906; P. formosanum var. hainanense Gagnepain; P. pentandrum var. hainanense (Gagnepain) H. L. Li.

Trees small or shrubs, ca. 12 m tall. Young branchlets ferrugineous pubescent; old branchlets glabrous, inconspicuously lenticellate. Leaves clustered at branchlet apex, appearing pseudoverticillate, biennial or perennial; petiole 5–12 mm; leaf blade dark green and shiny adaxially, pale green abaxially, obovate or oblong-obovate, 4–10 × 3–5 cm, papery when young, soon becoming leathery, pubescent on both surfaces, later glabrate, lateral veins 7–10-paired, reticulate veins prominent adaxially, base narrowly cuneate, decurrent, margin entire or rugose, apex obtuse or shortly acute, sometimes rounded. Inflorescences terminal, paniculate, with numerous corymbs, densely ferrugineous pubescent; primary peduncle and primary axis 4–8 cm; secondary peduncles 1.5–4 cm; tertiary peduncles 3–5 mm; bracts lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, deciduous; bracteoles ovate-lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm, glabrous or margin ciliate; pedicels 3–6 mm. Petals 5–6 mm. Filaments ca. 3 mm; anthers ca. 1 mm. Ovary ovoid, sparsely ferrugineous pubescent at base; placentas 2, parietal, in proximal part of ovary; ovules 12–16. Capsule compressed globose, 6–9 mm in diam., glabrous, dehiscing by 2 valves; pericarp thinly woody, horizontally striate adaxially. Seeds ca. 10, irregularly angular, ca. 3 mm. Fl. May–Nov, fr. Oct–Dec.

Thickets, slopes, seashores; sea level to 300 m. S Guangxi (Hepu Xian), Hainan, S Taiwan (including Lan Yu) [Vietnam].

Pittosporum pentandrum var. pentandrum is distributed in Indonesia (N Sulawesi) and the Philippines.