Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers.

Habit

Shrub

Family Description

Evergreen or decidious trees or shrubs, often aromatic; twigs with or without conspicous terminal vegetative buds and rings of bud scale scars. Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite or clustered at branch ends, simple, sometimes shallowly lobed near apex, pinnately veined or strongly 3-veined, exstipulate. Flowers in panicles, eacemes or umbels, umbels often enclosed by subpersistent scales and arranged in fascicles or racemes; unisexual or bisexual, actinomorphic. Perianth segments usually 6, free, in two whorls of 3. Fertile stamens usually 9, rarely 6 or 12, in whorls of 3, innermost filaments usually bearing glands, often with an inner whorl of 3 staminodes; female flowers with 9 or 12 staminodes; anthers dehiscing by 2 or 4 valves. Ovary usually superior, ovile 1, apical, style short, rarely filiform. Fruit a drupe usually borne on enlarged cup-shaped remains of perianth, rarely perianth completely absent or totally enclosing drupe.

Genus Description

Similar to Lindera but leaves always pinnately veined; anthers 4-celled; fruit borne on little to much-enlarged, entire or rarely toothed perianth cup.

Species description

Evergreen shrub or small tree to 6m; winter buds absent. Leaves membranous, aromatic when crushed, lanceolate, 7-14 x 2-4cm, long acuminate, base cuneate, dark green above when dry, pale beneath, glabrous or sparsely pubescent on veins, lateral veins 8-12 pairs, not prominent, minor veins not reticulate; petioles slender, 1.2-2.4. Umbel buds 4-5mm, borne on slender peduncles 3-8mm, in sessile clusters of 2-4 or on short slender stalk up to 4mm. Umbels c 5-10-flowered; pedicels 1-2mm, pubescent. Fruit subglobose 6-7mm, perianth rim c 1.5mm across, on thickened pedicel 3-5mm.

Samtse, Phuentsholing, Chukha, Gelephu, deothang. 300-1500m