''Daphniphyllum calycinum'' is a species of shrubby plant in the family

Daphniphyllaceae ''Daphniphyllum'' is the sole genus in the flowering plant family Daphniphyllaceae and was described as a genus in 1826. The genus includes evergreen shrubs and trees mainly native to east and southeast Asia, but also found in the Indian Subconti ...

. It is found in northern Vietnam and Southeastern Zhōngguó/China. It is used in biodiesel and in lubrication, soap-making and Chinese medicine.

Taxonomy

The species is in section ''Lunata'' of ''Daphniphyllum'', along with '' D. griffithianum'' and '' D. majus''. " e premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century",

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

(1800-84), English, described this plant in 1861 in his publication ''Flora Hongkongensis; a description of the flowering plants and ferns of the island of Hongkong''

Description

This species grows as a shrub some 1-5-4m tall. The grayish-brown

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

es are sparsely lenticillate. The petioles are some 4 to 8cm long. The obovate to obovate-elliptic

leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

blades are 12-16 by 4-9 cm in size, they are chartaceous, glaucous/hairy and are inconspicuously papillate on lower surface; broadly cuneate leaf base, slightly reflexed margins and obtuse to rounded apex, mucronate; 8-11 pairs of later veins are visible on upper surface, prominent on lower. Male flowers have an 8-10 cm pedicel and a discoid calyx with 3 or 4 broadly triangular lobes, 9 or 10 stamens some 3 mm long with very short filaments, oblong laterally-compressed anthers, connective exserted. Female flowers have a 5-6 mm pedicel, broadly-triangular calyx-loves about 1.5mm in size, ellipsoidal ovary 1.5-2 mm in size, very short style, 2 recurved stigmas. The

Infructescence Infructescence (fruiting head) is defined as the ensemble of fruits derived from the ovaries of an inflorescence. It usually retains the size and structure of the inflorescence. In some cases, infructescences are similar in appearance to simple fru ...

/fruiting head is some 4-5 cm in size, densely arranged with ovoid-ellipsoidal, tubercalate, glaucous drupes some 7 by 4 mm in size, with persistent calyx and style branches. Flowering occurs from April to June, while fruiting is from August to November. Distinguishing characteristics of this species are: the size (9-16 by 4-9 cm) and shape (obovate to obovate-elliptic) of the leaf blade, the obtuse to rounded apex; and size (about 7 mm), dense arrangement and glaucousness of the fruit.

Distribution

The plant is native to an area from northern Vietnam to southeastern Zhōngguó/China (

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, Guangxi,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, south

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

, south

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

Habitat and ecology

The shrub grows in forests and thickets at altitudes of occasionally below 100m but mainly 200-700m. ''Daphniphyllum calycinum'' is present on the degraded hillside shrublands of Hong Kong, it is common there in scrubland and forest edges. Birds disperse the dry-season fruiting seeds. The follicular micromycete, or sac-fungi, '' Mycosphaerella fasciculata'', in the Mycosphaerellaceae family, uses this species as a host.

Conservation

While this species has a very wide distribution with a large population, and it there are no current major or future significant threats identified, like most plant and ecosystems it is a continuing decline in area, extent and/or quality of habitat, and so is of conservation concern.

Vernacular names

*''vai lá xoan ngược'' is a name used in Vietnam. *牛耳枫, ''niu er feng'', or ''niu-er-fon'', is a name used in Zhōngguó/China

Uses

The seeds provide abundant oil that was used in lubrication and to make refined soap, however recently because of its toxicity it is only used in biodiesel. Roots and leaves are used within Chinese medicine. The plant has many alkaloids and other active ingredients, see for example Wu ''et al''., 2013.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15239178 calycinum Flora of Fujian Flora of Guangdong Flora of Guangxi Flora of Hong Kong Flora of Hunan Flora of Jiangxi Flora of Vietnam Plants described in 1861 Taxa named by George Bentham