Diospyros dumetorum W. W. Sm.

Diospyros dumetorum was published February, 1916, while D. mollifolia Rehder & E. H. Wilson was published on March 30th of the same year.

Trees 5--6(--14) m tall. 2-year-old branchlets brown, glabrescent; branchlets slender, pale brown to almost white tomentose. Winter buds tomentose. Petiole 2--3(--5) mm, slender, densely tomentose; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly oblong, 2--3(--6) X 1--1.3(--2.5) cm, papery to thinly leather, both surfaces densely pubescent to almost tomentose, base cuneate to rounded, apex obtuse to acute and cuspidate, lateral veins 3--5 per side, pale, and abaxially raised, reticulate veinlets almost invisible. Male flowers 1--4 together; pedicel 1--4 mm; calyx 1.5--3(--6) mm, divided almost to base, densely pubescent, lobes 4 and ovate; corolla white, (1--)2--3 X as long as calyx, urn-shaped, 4.5--5.5 mm, glabrous except for 4 conspicuous lines of appressed hairs on outside; corolla lobes 4, basally overlapping, ovate, ca. 1.5(--2.5) mm, apex acute; stamens 16; anthers glabrous. Female flowers solitary; calyx lobes 4, as long as corolla, both surfaces appressed pilose; corolla urn-shaped, ca. 5 mm, with 4 white pilose ridges, staminodes absent; ovary densely strigose. Fruit solitary. Fruiting calyx appressed pubescent; lobes 4, spreading to reflexed, triangular, ca. 8 X 2 mm, apex acute. Berries purplish black, ovoid, 1.2--1.4 X ca. 1 cm, pilose, glabrescent, apex mucronate. Seeds 1--4, compressedly ovoid with a small beak, 8--9 X ca. 4.5 X 2.5 mm, transversely wrinkled. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Oct-Feb.

SW Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan [N Thailand].

Thickets on slopes, mixed woods, ravines or limestone hills; 700--2700 m.

Diospyros mairei H. Léveillé; D. mollifolia Rehder & E. H. Wilson.