6. Lirianthe championii (Bentham) N. H. Xia & C. Y. Wu, Fl. China. 7: 64. 2008.
香港木兰 xiang gang mu lan
Basionym: Magnolia championii Bentham, Fl. Hongk. 8. 1861 ["championi"]; M. liliifera Baillon var. championii (Bentham) Pampanini; M. mulunica Y. W. Law & Q. W. Zeng; M. paenetalauma Dandy; M. pumila Andrews var. championii (Bentham) Finet & Gagnepain; M. shangsiensis Y. W. Law et al.; M. tenuicarpella Hung T. Chang.
Shrubs or small trees. Young twigs, petiole adaxial surfaces, leaf blade abaxial surface of bases and midveins, and peduncles with pale brown appressed long trichomes but very soon glabrescent. Young twigs green. Stipular scar nearly reaching apex of petiole. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic, narrowly oblong-elliptic, or narrowly obovate-elliptic, 7-14(-20) × 2-4.5(-6.5) cm, leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green and glossy, secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein, divergent near edge, and curving and circling apically, base cuneate to narrowly cuneate and slightly decurrent on petiole, apex acuminate, cuspidate, or rarely acute. Peduncle 1-1.5 cm, with pale yellow long trichomes; spathaceous bracts 3 or 4, apical-most bract scar ca. 1 cm basal to tepals. Flowers erect, very fragrant. Tepals 9; outer 3 tepals pale green, oblong-elliptic, 3.5-4 × ca. 2 cm; tepals of inner 2 whorls white, obovate, 2-2.5 × ca. 1.5 cm, fleshy, apex sometimes emarginate. Stamens 7-9 mm; connective exserted and forming a triangular mucro; anthers 6-7 mm, dehiscing introrsely. Gynoecium narrowly obovoid, 1-1.4 cm, white villous; carpels 8-9 mm, furrows abaxially reaching to base of style; ovules 2 per carpel, parallel. Fruit 3-4.5 cm; mature carpels ca. 1 cm, with ca. 2 mm apical beaks. Seeds narrowly ellipsoid or irregularly ovoid, 8-12 × 4-6 mm. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.
Evergreen broad-leaved forests, sandy soil, hills, along riversides; near sea level to 1000 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, Hainan [N Vietnam].
Magnolia bawangensis Y. W. Law & R. Z. Zhou (in Y. H. Liu, Magnolias China, 34. 2004) belongs here but was not validly published because no Latin description or diagnosis was provided and no type was indicated (Vienna Code, Art. 36.1 and 37.1).
One of us (Xia) considers that Magnolia mulunica is a distinct species of Lirianthe.