瑞丽茜树 rui li qian shu

Randia shweliensis J. Anthony, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 18: 205. 1934; Aidia shweliensis (J. Anthony) W. C. Chen.

Trees, 8-20 m tall; branches angled to terete, strigillose becoming glabrescent. Petiole 5-10 mm, sparsely strigillose to glabrous; leaf blade drying papery, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, lanceolate-oblong, or oblanceolate, 9.5-15 × 2-4.5 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially sparsely strigillose or strigose along principal veins, base cuneate to acute and sometimes slightly inequilateral, apex shortly acuminate to acuminate; secondary veins 8-11 pairs, usually with pilosulous domatia in abaxial axils; stipules triangular to ovate, 5-10 mm, keeled or with ridges in upside-down-Y pattern, strigillose, slenderly acute, sometimes with 1 or 2 aristae 1-3 mm. Inflorescences 2-10-flowered, strigillose to strigose or glabrescent; peduncle 1-1.5 cm; bracts linear-lanceolate, 2-4 mm, aristate; pedicels 6-18 mm. Calyx glabrous; ovary portion obovoid to ellipsoid, 3-4 mm; limb 8-13 mm, inside villosulous to tomentulose, lobed for ca. 1/3; lobes triangular to linear-lanceolate, acute and terminating in arista 1-2 mm. Corolla creamy white to pale green or pale yellow, outside glabrous; tube 20-25 mm, inside tomentose; lobes lanceolate, 15-26 mm, acuminate to subaristate, marginally hyaline. Fruiting peduncle to 3.5 m. Berry subglobose to ellipsoid, ca. 11 × 9 cm, smooth; seeds ovoid to oblong-angular, ca. 12 × 7 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. May.

● Open thickets or sparse moist primary broad-leaved forests in valleys; 1100-2200 m. W Yunnan.

Li et al. (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 44: 707-711. 2006) illustrated this species in their figure 1 and reported that the flower buds are formed nearly a year before the flowers open and that the fruit may take two years to mature. They also detailed errors in the localities of Chinese specimens given by Tirgengadum and Sastre in their protologue and excluded one of the specimens treated by them, C. W. Wang 78281 (A), which they included instead in Fosbergia thailandica. Additionally, they reported that the Gaoligong Shan population of this species does not appear to be reproducing itself, although they stop short of considering this a species of conservation concern.