膝柄木 xi bing mu

Celastrus robustus Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 395. 1824; Kurrimia robusta (Roxburgh) Kurz; K. sinica Hung T. Chang & S. Ye Liang.

Trees, 10(-40) m tall; twigs thick and strong, usually purple-brown, rough and coarse on surface, often with large leaves and bud scars; bark rather rough, brown. Leaves alternate, sometimes subopposite on young twigs; petiole cylindric, 2-3 cm; leaf blade oblong-elliptic or narrowly ovate, 11-20 × 3.5-6 cm, subleathery, glossy, base often rounded or broadly attenuate, sometimes subcuneate or slightly cordate, margin entire, apex acuminate or acute; main vein and lateral veins prominent abaxially, lateral veins 14-18 pairs, becoming dense and netted dis-tally. Cymes 3-5-branched, many flowered; peduncle short or nearly absent; pedicel short. Flowers small, yellowish green; sepals linear-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, narrowly acuminate at apex; petals narrowly obovate or oblong-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, subrounded at apex. Filament ca. 2 mm. Ovary compressed globose, base surrounded by disk; styles 2, thick and large, basally with tufted hairs; stigma small. Capsule narrow and long ovoid, ca. 3 × 1-1.2 cm, steeply tapering to apex, with 2 vertical grooves. Seeds 1, elliptic-ovoid, ca. 1.5 cm, brown or brown-red, glossy; aril covering most of seed, white or brown.

Lowland forests; ca. 100 m. SE Guangxi (Hepu) [Bangladesh, ?Bhutan, Cambodia, E India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

According to FRPS (45(3): 147, 149. 1999), there exists only one tree of Bhesa robusta in Hepu, SE Guangxi.