大围山野栀子 da wei shan ye zhi zi

Trees, 10-15 m tall; bark dark gray; branches glabrous, lenticellate. Petiole ca. 3 mm, glabrous; leaf blade drying stiffly papery, greenish brown, ovate to elliptic, 10-14 × 4-5 cm, both surfaces glabrous and shiny, base cuneate to acute and sometimes slightly decurrent, apex acuminate with tip then blunt; secondary veins 5 or 6 pairs; stipules broadly triangular-ovate, 1.5-2 × 2-3 mm, acuminate. Inflorescence terminal or pseudoaxillary, 1-flowered, glabrous; peduncle articulate, basal portion ca. 0.5 cm, apical portion ("pedicel") 20-25 mm; bracteoles triangular, ca. 1.5 mm, sericeous adaxially, glabrous abaxially. Calyx sparsely sericeous outside; ovary portion ellipsoid, ca. 3 mm; limb with basal tubular portion 2-2.5 mm, inside densely villous and with short colleters; lobes linear-oblong to spatulate, 14-16 × 0.7-0.9 mm, 1-veined, obtuse. Corolla campanulate, glabrous throughout; tube white outside, inside striate and/or speckled with purple, 50-55 mm, at base with slender portion 6-7 × ca. 5 mm, abruptly dilated above this, ca. 30 mm in diam. at middle; lobes white outside, purple-speckled inside, overlapping to left, broadly ovate, 18-20 × 22-23 mm, obtuse. Ovary with placentas parietal, apparently confluent; style ca. 50 mm; stigmatic portion ca. 20 × 1 mm. Berry ellipsoid becoming subglobose with base swollen-stipitate, 4-5 cm in diam., color inside and out unknown, smooth; seeds ca. 12 × 8 × 4 mm. Fl. Oct-Dec, fr. Dec-Mar.

Rocky crevices in limestone rain forests; 300-600 m. Yunnan (Maguan) [Vietnam].

Shui and Chen described the flowers of this species as being (paraphrased here) terminal on a reduced branch that is produced in an axillary position. The inflorescence in other species of Rothmannia is a congested or reduced cyme generally borne on a short peduncle produced in a terminal or pseudoaxillary position; thus their "reduced branch" is here treated as being the peduncle (i.e., the structure directly bearing the solitary flower. In general, these structures have been interpreted variously by different authors. Zhang et al. (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 45: 92. 2007) reported this species also from Vietnam.