毛土连翘 mao tu lian qiao

Cinchona orixensis Roxburgh, Bot. Descr. Swietenia, 21. 1793; C. excelsa Roxburgh; Hymenodictyon excelsum (Roxburgh) Wallich.

Trees, deciduous, to 25 m tall; bark smooth, gray; branches rather stout, weakly flattened to terete, puberulent to densely pilosulous or glabrescent. Leaves often grouped near ends of branches; petiole 2-17 cm, pilosulous; blade drying papery or membranous, ovate-elliptic, elliptic, or broadly elliptic, 9-22 × 6-14 cm, both surfaces pilosulous with pubescence sometimes denser abaxially, base acute to obtuse, margins entire, apex shortly acuminate or acute; secondary veins 7-10 pairs, sometimes with pilosulous domatia; stipules ovate to triangular or lanceolate, 5-20 mm, densely pilosulous, obtuse to acute or bilobed for up to 1/2. Inflorescences terminal and in axils of uppermost leaves, 15-20 cm, simple or branched at least in part, with axes densely spiciform to racemiform, pilosulous, usually pendulous; peduncles ca. 6 cm; basal bracts 2-4, with blade papery to leathery, ovate to elliptic or elliptic-oblong, 9-17 × 2-5.5 cm, pilosulous, with stipe 3-8 cm. Flowers subsessile or with pedicels to 2 mm. Calyx densely puberulent to pilosulous; ovary portion subglobose to ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm; limb lobed essentially to base; lobes triangular to elliptic, 1-1.5 mm. Corolla white or brown, outside densely puberulent to pilosulous; tube 2.5-3.5 mm, slenderly cylindrical then abruptly inflated at lobes; lobes ligulate to lanceolate, 2-2.5 mm, acute. Style exserted for 2-5 mm. Fruiting pedicels to 10 mm, reflexed. Capsules brown, 1.2-3 × 0.5-1.1 cm, woody, with prominent whitened, elliptic lenticels; seeds (including wing) 7-8 mm. Fl. May-Jul, fr. May-Dec.

Thickets or forests at riversides, at field edges, and in valleys; 100-1700 m. Sichuan, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia (Java), Kashmir, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].

Mabberley (loc. cit.) noted that Roxburgh studied this species in India as one of several plants (in several families) for which the bitter bark was used medicinally. In India this species is used for good quality wood for furniture and small items, and its bark as a febrifuge and a source of dye (color not noted; Razafimandimbison & Bremer, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 152: 375-377. 2006).