Pittosporum illicioides Makino

Pittosporum illicioides var. angustifolium (described from Taiwan) represents the extreme of a continuous range of variation, with leaf blades linear, 5–15 × 0.6–2 cm.

Fats and oils can be extracted from the seeds for making soaps, and fibers from the stems can be made into paper.

Shrubs ca. 5 m tall. Young branchlets glabrous; old branchlets lenticellate. Leaves 3–6-clustered at branchlet apex, appearing pseudoverticillate; petiole 7–15 mm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, dark green adaxially, shiny after drying, obovate-lanceolate, oblanceolate, or narrowly lanceolate, 5–18 × 1.7–4.5 cm, thinly leathery, glabrous, lateral veins 6–8-paired, slightly convex abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially, reticulate veins indistinct abaxially, base narrowly cuneate, usually decurrent, margin flat or slightly rugose, apex obtuse or acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, umbellate, 2–10-flowered; bracts small, deciduous; pedicels usually curved, slender, 1.5–3.5 cm, glabrous. Sepals ovate, ca. 2 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Petals 8–9 mm. Stamens ca. 6 mm. Ovary long ovoid, puberulous; stipe short; placentas 3, parietal; ovules 5–8 per placenta. Capsule subglobose, ± triangular or with 3 longitudinal folds, 9–12 mm in diam., dehiscing by 3 valves; placentas in middle part of valves; pericarp thinly woody; pedicel usually curved, slender, 2–4 cm; stipe ca. 1.5 mm. Seeds 8–17, ca. 3 mm; funicle compressed, ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Jun–Nov.

Anhui, Fujian, N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangsu (Yixing Xian), Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan].

Forests, thickets, valleys, stream sides; 100--2200 m.

Pittosporum illicioides var. angustifolium Huang ex S. Y. Lu; P. illicioides var. oligocarpum (Hayata) Kitamura; P. illicioides var. stenophyllum P. L. Chiu ex H. T. Chang & S. Z. Yan; P. kobuskianum Gowda; P. oligocarpum Hayata; P. oligospermum Hayata; P. sahnianum Gowda.