Volume 2 > Part 4 > Year 1981 > Page 460 > Symplocaceae > Symplocos

12. Symplocos lucida (Thunb.) Sieb. & Zucc.wfo-0001141690

Fl. Jap. 1: 55. t. 24. 1835; Noot., Rev. Symploc.: 217. 1975.— Laurus lucida Thunb., Fl. Jap.: 174. 1784.

Accepted Name : Pourthiaea villosa (Thunb.) Decne.
Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. 10: 147. 1874.

Description : Shrub or tree to 15 m; twigs glabrous, yellowish green, angular when dry; terminal buds glabrous. Leaves coriaceous (sometimes quite thin), glabrous, acute or obtuse with cuneate base and entire or glandular dentate revolute margin, ca elliptic, 5–12 by 2–4.5 cm; acumen 5–25 mm; midrib more or less prominent on the upper surface, often sulcate towards the base; nerves 5–15 pairs, prominent on both upper and lower surface; reticulation often obscure; petiole 5–15 mm. Flowers in a basally branched short dense raceme or condensed spike of 1.5–4 cm; axis puberulous or pubescent; bracts and bracteoles persistent under the fruit, glabrous, or sometimes pubescent or puberulous on midrib and base, 1–3 mm; pedicels 0–5 mm. Calyx mostly glabrous, nearly divided into 5 lobes, 1–3 mm. Corolla 3–5 mm. Stamens 10–70. Disk densely hairy. Ovary glabrous, 0.5–2 mm high; style glabrous, or hairy, mostly towards the base. Fruit ellipsoid (to rarely nearly orbicular), 1–3-celled, 5–18 by 4–15 mm, the wider ones with 2 seeds; mesocarp fleshy. Seeds usually U-shaped with U-shaped embryo, in the 3-celled fruits the seeds abortive or (at most) V-shaped; the legs of the U are either separated by a septum or not.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Doi Inthanon).

Distribution : N India, N Burma, Indochina, China, Hainan, Japan (type), Ryu Kyu’s, Formosa, Malesia except the Moluccas and New Guninea.

Ecology : In primary forests, from 1,500–3,000 m alt.

E-version notes : As Symplocos lucida Wall. ex G.Don