中越大果茜 zhong yue da guo qian

Trees, 6-10 m tall; bark reddish brown; branches compressed to terete, glabrous. Petiole 5-10 mm, strigose; leaf blade drying papery, oblanceolate to obovate, 10-24 × 3.5-7 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially strigose at least on veins, base cuneate to acute, apex acuminate to long acuminate; secondary veins 8-11 pairs, in abaxial axils with pilosulous domatia; stipules triangular, 4-7 mm, glabrous, abaxially keeled in upper half, acute and aristate, arista 2-3 mm. Inflorescences 3-15-flowered, glabrous; peduncle 0.5-1 cm; bracts triangular to suborbicular, 1-3 mm; pedicels 8-15 mm. Calyx glabrous; ovary portion obovoid to ellipsoid, ca. 4 mm; limb 10-15 mm, lobed for ca. 1/2; lobes triangular to narrowly triangular, marginally hyaline, acute and aristate, arista 1-2 mm. Corolla white, outside apparently glabrous; tube 6-14 mm, inside glabrescent or sparsely hairy at base; lobes narrowly triangular, 13-17 mm. Stigmas ca. 3 mm. Berries solitary, globose to ovoid-globose, 4-6 × 4-5 cm, sparsely to rather densely tuberculate or perhaps smooth at least when young; seeds orbicular, laterally compressed, 6-8 × 5-6 × 2.5-3 mm, bony. Fl. Mar-Apr.

Evergreen forests on mountain slopes or in valleys; 1400-1900 m [as low as 1100-1200 m in Vietnam]. Yunnan (Jinping, Lüchun, Maguan) [Vietnam].

Zhang et al. (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 45: 90-93. 2007) noted that the Chinese plants differ from the Vietnamese plants in having leaf blades glabrous adaxially and hairy along the veins abaxially and corolla tubes 1-1.4 cm (vs. glabrous on both surfaces and corolla tube up to 6 mm in the Vietnamese plants).