Cleidion brevipetiolatum Pax & K. Hoffm.

Small trees, 5-12 m tall, monoecious. Branchlets glabrous. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 3 mm; petiole 3-8 mm or 1-3 cm; leaf blade obovate or obovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 7-21 × 3.5-7 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially bearded in vein axils, base obtuse, with 2-4 maculate glands, apex acuminate; veins 5-9 pairs. Male inflorescences unbranched, 5-20 cm, puberulent; bracts broadly triangular, ca. 1.5 mm. Male flowers 3-7 per bract, clusters widely spaced; pedicel 1-1.5 mm; sepals 3, 2-2.5 mm; stamens (40-)55-65. Female flowers axillary; pedicel thick, 2-3.5(-7) cm; bracts 2 or 3 at base, triangular, 1.5-2 mm; sepals 5, unequal, 3 lanceolate, 6-7(-20) × 2-3(-6) mm, 2 triangular, 2-4 × 0.5-1.5 mm; ovary globose, densely yellow villous; styles 3, ca. 1 cm, deeply 2-cleft, filiform. Fruiting sepals: 3 or 4 oblong, 9-15(-30) × 4-6(-10) mm; 1 or 2 shorter, 3-5 mm. Capsule 3-lobed, 1.2-1.5 cm in diam., pilose. Seeds subglobose, 6-7 mm, brownish marbled. Fl. and fr. Mar-Oct.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [Laos, N Thailand, N Vietnam].

Evergreen forests, on limestone hills; 200-800(-1000) m.