''Chunia bucklandioides'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

belonging to the family

Hamamelidaceae Hamamelidaceae, commonly referred to as the witch-hazel family, is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales. The clade consists of shrubs and small trees positioned within the woody clade of the core Saxifragales. An earlier system ...

. It is a tree native to

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

and northern

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. It is the sole species in genus ''Chunia''. It is a medium-sized tree, growing up to 30 meters tall with a trunk up to 50 cm in diameter. It has scabrous dark brown bark with gray patches. Leaves are alternate and vary in size and shape, from simple to three-lobed, with ovate and deltoid to subcordate leaf blades 9 to 15 cm long by 8 to 13 cm wide. Inflorescences are spicate and terminal with 12 to 16 bisexual flowers absent sepals and petals, and enclosed by two caducous bract-like stipules. It flowers from December to February and fruits from March to June.Truong Van Do, Qiang Fan, Wanyi Zhao, Qianyi Yin (2020). Taxonomic Notes on Chunia bucklandioides (Exbucklandioideae, Hamamelidaceae). ''Annales Botanici Fennici'', 57(4-6), 293-298, 28 October 2020. On Hainan it is known from the Dialuo and Jingfeng mountains, where it grows in forested gullies from 600 to 700 meters elevation. Subpopulations in Ding'an Qiongzhong, Baoting, and Yaxian have since disappeared. In Vietnam it is known from a single population near Na Nheo village in Lào Cai province, where it grows at the edges of evergreen broadleaf forests on mountain slopes, in wet valleys, and along stream margins from 400 to 500 meters elevation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q628202, from2=Q15606166 Hamamelidaceae genera Monotypic Saxifragales genera Flora of Hainan Flora of Vietnam Plants described in 1848 Hamamelidaceae