老鸦柿 Diospyros rhombifolia

  • Scientific Name: Diospyros rhombifolia Hemsl.
  • Ref: J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 26:70. 1889
  • Chinese Common Name: 老鸦柿 lǎoya∙shì
  • Japanese Common Name: ロウヤガキ [老鴉柿/老爺柿] rōyagaki, ツクバネガキ [衝羽根柿] tsukubanegaki
  • Family: Ebenaceae
  • Genus: Diospyros
  • Distribution: Thickets on slopes, forests beside streams; 300–800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.
Trees to 8 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets pubescent, usually with inconspicuous slender spiny tips, sometimes also with short thick lateral spines. Petiole 2--4 mm, slender, puberulous; leaf blade, 4--8.5 X 1.8--3.8 cm, papery, abaxially paler and scattered appressed pubescent, adaxially dark green, yellowish brown pubescent on veins, glabrescent, and minutely pustulate, base cuneate, margin ciliate, apex acute to acuminate, lateral veins 5--7 per side, reticulate veinlets slender, lax, raised on both surfaces, and sometimes pale or inconspicuous. Male flowers: pedicel ca. 7 mm; calyx lobes 4, triangular; corolla urn-shaped, ca. 4 mm, both surfaces slightly pubescent; stamens 16. Female flowers: pedicel ca. 1.8 cm, pubescent; calyx lobes 4, divided nearly to base, lanceolate, ca. 1 cm; corolla urn-shaped, with 4 white villose ridges; corolla lobes 4, reflexed; ovary densely villose. Fruit solitary, fruiting pedicel 1.5--2.5 cm, slender. Fruiting calyx lobes 4, spreading to slightly reflexed, oblong-lanceolate, 1.6--2 X ca. 0.5 cm, veins several, subparallel, and slightly raised. Berries orange, globose, ca. 2 cm in diam., glabrous, shiny. Seeds 2--4, brown, ca. 1 cm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Oct. (Flora of China)

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