English: Chinese Tapiscia; False Bladdernut.
German: China-Tapiscia; Chinesische Tapiscia.
Clades:
Tapisciaceae,
Huerteales, thymelaeales,
Malvidae,
Malvanae Angiospermae,
PlantsRegion: East Asia, Southwestern China, Northern Vietnam.
Habitat: moist montane broadleaved forests, valleys, stream margins, mountain slopes; 500 to 2200 m elevation.
Content: polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins, triterpenoids.Use: ornamental shade tree, for attractive pinnate foliage, fragrant yellow flowers; wood for furniture, carpentry.
BotanyKey: long 17-month fruit development
Type: tree; deciduous; medium-sized, 8 to 15 meters tall, up to 25 meters.
Root: deep woody taproot system; wide-spreading.
Stem: straight, erect; greyish-brown bark; smooth to shallowly fissured; prominent lenticels
Leaves: alternate; odd-pinnately compound; leaflets 5 to 9, 30 to 45 cm long, ovate to elliptic, serrate margins, dark green above and densely greyish-glaucous beneath
Inflorescence: axillary; multi-branched panicles; male inflorescences are slender and densely flowered spikes;hermaphroditic inflorescences are stouter and shorter
Flowers: yellow; small; honey-scented; yellowish-white; functional androdioecious (male or bisexual); featuring 5 persistent tubular calyx lobes; 5 petals; 5 stamens surrounding a 1-locular superior ovary with a single basal ovule.
Pollination: by insects.
Fruit: drupe or berry-like fruit; small, 7 eo 10 mm; egg-shaped to subglobose; black .
Seed: single, hard, subglobose, blackish; surrounded by fleshy or leathery fruit pulp.
Dispersion: by frugivorous birds, small mammals, gravity, water.
TaxonomyTapiscia is a member of
Tapisciaceae within the order
Huerteales.