黄山紫荆 Cercis chingii

  • Scientific Name: Cercis chingii Chun
  • Ref: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. Cambridge, MA 8:20. 1927
  • English Common Name: Ching’s redbud
  • Chinese Common Name: 黄山紫荆 Huáng Shān zǐjīng
  • Family: Fabaceae
  • Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
  • Tribe: Cercideae
  • Subtribe: Cercidinae
  • Genus: Cercis
  • Distribution: Sparse forests, shrubby areas, roadsides, cultivated in gardens; low elevations. Anhui, N Guangdong, Zhejiang.
  • Photo: 03/16/2013
  • Note: named for isotype collector Ching, Ren-Chang (秦仁昌) 1925
Shrubs, 2-6 m tall. Bark light gray, smooth. Branchlets grayish white at first, blackish brown when dry, with numerous, dense, small lenticels, brownish puberulent when young, gla­brescent with age. Petiole 1.5-3 cm, slightly thickened at both ends; leaf blade brownish when dry, ovate-orbicular or reni­form, 5-11 × 5-12 cm, subleathery, abaxially puberulent on principal veins and in axils of veins at base, principal veins 5, raised abaxially, base cordate or truncate, apex acute with a 5-8 mm mucro or rounded without mucro. Flower clusters borne on old branches, light purplish red, becoming whitish. Calyx 5.5-6 mm. Petals ca. 1 cm. Legumes 7-8.5 × ca. 1.3 cm, thickly leath­ery, valves twisting upon dehiscence, wing absent, stipe absent; beak robust, ca. 8 × 2 mm, hard. Seeds 3-6, embedded in thick, slightly white (brown when dry), spongy pulp. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 14*. (Flora of China)

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