思茅苹婆 si mao ping po

Shrubs, 2-4 m. Branchlets grooved, densely stellate pilose and puberulent, glabrescent. Petiole 2.5-5.5 cm, stellate pilose, glabrescent; leaf blade simple, oblanceolate, 11-27 × 3.5-8 cm, papery or rarely thinly leathery, both surfaces stellate pilose, when young, glabrescent, lateral veins 14-16 on each side of midrib, base shallowly cordate, rarely cuneate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence racemose, pendulous, subterminal, 6-15 cm, purple stellate pilose. Pedicel slender, 8-10 mm. Epicalyx lobes lanceolate, 4-5 mm. Calyx purple, divided nearly to base, exterior stellate pilose, interior glabrous, lobes lanceolate, 12-14 × 3.5-4.2 mm, incurved with coherent tips, margin ciliate. Male flowers: androgynophore curved, 3.5-4 mm glabrous. Female flowers: ovary globose, white stellate pilose; style curved, white stellate pilose. Follicle red, drying brownish red, obliquely fusiform, 5-8 × 1.5-2.5 cm, 3-5-seeded, base tapered, apex narrowly acute, stellate pilose and puberulent. Seed purplish black, oblong, 12-15 × 8-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Feb.

● Forests; ca. 1400 m. S Yunnan (Simao).

More detailed study could show that Sterculia simaoensis is better included within S. henryi. It is differentiated by the subcordate base of the leaf blade, the relatively shorter bracteoles, only ca. 1/2 as long as the pedicels, and by the purplish, not yellow-brown, indumentum of the inflorescence.