Eriolaena spectabilis - Eastern Salmonwood

Eastern Salmonwood is a deciduous shrub or small tree, 3-8 m tall, with branchlets densely velvety. Leaves are ovate to broadly ovate, 8-14 x 6-13 cm, with 5-7 basal veins, a heart-shaped base, irregularly minutely toothed margins, and a shortly pointed tip. The lower surface is densely gray-white or brownish star-shaped-woolly, while the upper surface bears sparse star-shaped hairs. Stipules are linear, pointed, about 5 mm long; leaf-stalks 2-5 cm, velvety. Flowers are borne in leaf axils, in many-flowered cymes, which are densely velvety. Flower-stalks are equal to or shorter than the flowers. Petals are 4 (or 5), white or yellowish white, obovate-spoon-shaped, as long as sepals, with a thick hairy stipe. Stamens numerous. False sepals are linear-lanceshaped, about 4 mm, sepals 4 (or 5), linear-lanceshaped, 1.8-2.5 cm long, densely woolly. Ovary is ovoid, 8-celled, velvety; style hairy at base; stigma lobed. Capsule is woody, ovoid or ellipsoid, about 5 × 2.5 cm, surface covered with wart-like elevations, bumps, angular, deeply grooved, tip blunt or beaked. Eastern Salmonwood is found at altitudes of 500-1300 m, Bihar, Himalayas, from Himachal Pradesh to NE India, Bhutan, and China. Flowering: April-July.