Homalium mollissimum Merrill

Taam 286 (A, K), collected from Guangdong, might not be referable to Homalium mollissimum; see inadequately known "species B" below.

Shrubs or small trees, 6-7 m tall; bark gray or gray-brown; branchlets terete, densely pubescent, hairs spreading, yellowish. Stipules sometimes persistent, 5-10 mm, linear, narrowly elliptic, or obovate, pubescent with long white hairs, margin toothed or erose; petiole 2-5 mm, densely pubescent; leaf blade elliptic or oblong-elliptic, rarely oblong or obovate, ca. 2 × as long as wide, 5-11 × 2.5-5 cm, leathery, both surfaces sparsely to densely yellow pubescent throughout, midvein and lateral veins raised abaxially, flat adaxially, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, base acute to rounded, margin remotely shallowly serrate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, acumen to ca. 7 mm. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, racemose, 4-8 cm; rachis densely pubescent, hairs spreading, yellowish white, long; bracts narrowly lanceolate to linear, 1-4 mm, papery, margin entire, toothed, or erose, pubescent, hairs spreading, white, long. Pedicels 2-3 mm, articulate above middle, densely pubescent, hairs spreading, yellowish, long. Flowers numerous, inserted along rachis singly or in pairs, white, 7- or 8-merous, 4-6 mm in diam. Calyx tube ca. 2 mm, conspicuously longitudinally ribbed, outside densely pubescent, hairs mostly as long as those on sepal and petal margins, spreading, yellowish; sepals linear or oblanceolate-linear, 3-5 × 1-1.5 mm, apex usually acute, both surfaces sparsely pubescent, hairs spreading, white, long; sepal margin densely ciliate, hairs spreading, white, long. Petals oblanceolate, slightly longer than sepals, apex acute or obtuse, both surfaces sparsely pubescent, hairs spreading, white, long; margin densely ciliate, hairs spreading, long, to 1.5-2 mm at petal apex. Disk glands minute. Stamens 7 or 8; filaments ca. equal to or overtopping petals, with long spreading hairs in lower part. Free part of ovary pubescent, hairs spreading, white, straight, ca. 1 mm or more; styles 3 or 4, ca. 3 mm, ca. 2 × longer at fruiting stage, hairy except for distal 1/4, hairs as for ovary; placentas 3 or 4, each with 3 or 4 ovules. Capsule 5-7 mm. Fl. Jun-Dec, fr. Jul-Jan of following year.

Mountain forests, thickets, on dry, rocky, clay or sandy soil, gentle slopes; low elevations. Hainan [N Vietnam].