Diospyros changii Miau.

Trees to 15 m tall. Trunk to 50 cm d.b.h., bark gray to grayish black. Branchlets slender, appressed yellowish brown pubescent. Petiole ca. 2(--3) mm, appressed yellowish brown pubescent; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or oblanceolate, 2--4.5(--7.7) X l--2(--3.5) cm, thinly leathery, abaxially paler, sparsely appressed pubescent, and brown when dry, adaxially shiny dark green and grayish brown when dry, base cuneate, margin ciliate, apex obtusely acuminate, lateral veins 5--7(--10) per side, reticulate veinlets inconspicuous. Male flowers solitary or paired; pedicel slender, ca. 7 mm, sparsely pubescent; calyx campanulate, ca. 2.5 mm, very sparsely pubescent; calyx lobes 4, ovate, margin ciliate, apex rounded to subacute; corolla white, slender, at least 8 mm (not mature), with narrow lines of pubescence; corolla lobes 4, oblong-elliptic, ca. 8 mm, apically reflexed; stamens 8, glabrous. Female flowers with ovary sparsely appressed white pubescent; styles 2. Fruiting pedicel ca. 1 cm, slender, slightly pubescent. Fruiting calyx ca. (5--)7 mm in diam., deeply divided; lobes 4, ± spreading, broadly ovate, ca. (1.5--)2.5 X 2.5 mm. Berries red, ovoid, 1.5--2.2(--2.5) X (1.1--)l.2--l.8 cm, glabrescent. Seeds dark brown, subcylindric, ca. 11 X 4.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Oct-Dec.

Authentic material of Diospyros changii has not been seen by the authors, but there is very little in the protolog to suggest that this species is anything but an unusually vigorous form of D. howii. Diospyros changii has many similarities to the Indochinese species D. eugenii Lecomte which however is reported to have male flowers with 16 stamens.

* Mixed forests or forested ravines. Hainan.