• Scientific Name: Styrax odoratissimus Champ. ex Benth.
• Ref: Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 4:304-305. 1852
• Synonyms:
  • Cyrta finlaysoniana (Wall. ex G.Don) Miers
  • Styrax finlaysonianum Wall. ex G.Don
  • S. prunifolius Perkins
  • S. veitchiorum Hemsl. & E.H.Wilson
• English Common Name: fragrant snowbell
• Chinese Common Name: 芬芳安息香 fēnfāng ānxī∙xiāng, 郁香野茉莉 yùxiāng yě∙mòlì
• Family: Styracaceae
• Genus: Styrax
• Distribution: Damp shaded ravines, slopes in forest thickets; 600–1600 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.
• Photo: 05/05/2017, Hangzhou Botanical Garden, Zhejiang

Trees 4--10 m tall. Trunk to 20 cm, bark gray-brown, not exfoliating. Young twigs slightly flattened, becoming purple to dark purple, terete, and glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole 5--10 mm; leaf blade ovate to ovate-elliptic, 4--15 X 2--8 cm, leathery to papery, glabrous but abaxially sometimes veins densely brown stellate pubescent, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire or remotely serrulate, apex acuminate to acute, secondary veins 6--9 pairs, tertiary veins subparallel. Inflorescence terminal racemes or panicles, 5--8 cm, densely yellow stellate tomentose. Pedicel 1.5--1.8 cm. Flowers 1.2--1.5 cm. Calyx ca. 5 X 5 mm, membranous, truncate to undulate. Corolla lobes elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 9--11 X 4--5 mm, membranous. Stamens shorter than corolla; filaments slightly flexuous at middle, densely white stellate pubescent. Fruit subglobose, 8--10 mm in diam., densely gray-yellow stellate tomentose, apex with a slightly curved rostrum. Seeds ovoid, tuberculate, densely brown scaly. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Jun-Sep. (Flora of China)

05/05/2017, Hangzhou Botanical Garden, Zhejiang