秋茄树 qiu qie shu

Trees 1-3(-8) m tall. Bark grayish to brown, smooth. Stipules linear, 2-3 cm. Petiole 1-1.8 cm; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, or obovate-oblong, 4-12 × 2-5 cm, thick, base cuneate to attenuate, apex obtuse, rounded, or sometimes slightly emarginate. Inflorescence 2 or 3 times dichotomously branched; peduncle 1-3 cm. Pedicel 3-6 mm; bracteoles 2-4, connate. Calyx cream colored, glabrous; lobes 5 or 6, linear, 1.3-1.9 cm, reflexed after anthesis, apex acuminate. Petals inserted at base of disk, 5(or 6), white, 1-1.5 cm, 2-lobed, arista in sinuses 7-10 mm. Stamens numerous, 6-13 mm; filaments filiform; anthers lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Disk cup-shaped. Ovary inferior, 1-loculed; ovules 6; style filiform, 1.4-1.6 mm; stigma lobes 3. Fruit ovoid, 1.5-2.5 × ca. 1 cm, indehiscent, calyx lobes persistent. Seed 1, viviparous. Hypocotyl clavate, 15-23 cm, terete. Fl. and fr. all year. 2n = 36.

Margins of mangrove swamps and muddy or sandy tidal flats; sea level. E Fujian, S Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan [S Japan].

Until 2003, plants of Kandelia in E China and Japan were included within K. candel (Linnaeus) Druce, which is now recognized as an allopatric species ranging from E India to Borneo.