Brassaiopsis glomerulata (Blume) Regel

This species is used medicinally and as an ornamental.

Trees, to ca. 20 m tall, hermaphroditic. Branches prickly, ferruginous red tomentose when young. Leaves palmately compound, with 5-9 leaflets; petiole 30-50 cm, slender; petiolules 2-9 cm, slender, 1-1.5 mm in diam.; leaflets oblong, ovate-elliptic, or broadly lanceolate, 15-35 × 6-15 cm, papery or subleathery, ferruginous stellate tomentose when young, soon glabrescent, secondary veins 7-10(-12) pairs, base cuneate or broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire or sparsely serrulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, pendent, unarmed, ferruginous-red tomentose when young; primary axis more than 30 cm; peduncles 2-5 cm; umbels 2-3 cm in diam.; pedicels 0.8-1.5 cm at anthesis, 1-3.5 cm in fruit. Ovary 2-carpellate. Fruit globose or compressed-globose to didymo-globose, 7-10 mm in diam.; styles persistent, 1-2 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jan-Feb.

Himalaya (Nepal to Assam), Burma, Indo-China, W. & S. China, Malaysia.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

300-1500 m

Dense forests on mountain slopes or in valleys; 400-2400 m.

Aralia glomerulata Blume, Bijdr. 873. 1826; Acantho panax esquirolii H. Léveillé; Brassaiopsis acuminata H. L. Li; B. coriacea W. W. Smith; B. glomerulata var. angustifolia Y. R. Li; B. glomerulata var. brevipedicellata H. L. Li; B. glomerulata var. coriacea (W. W. Smith) H. L. Li; B. glomerulata var. longipedicellata H. L. Li; B. liana Y. F. Deng; B. speciosa Decaisne & Planchon; Hedera floribunda Wallich ex G. Don; Macropanax glomerulatus (Blume) Miquel.

Flowering from June to August; fruiting in January and February.

Brassaiopsis glomerulata is occurring in Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan of China, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam.

The phylogeny of Brassaiopsis has been inferred using the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) and 5S nontranscribed spacer (5S-NTS) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (Mitchell and Wen, 2005). The analysis of phylogeny suggests Brassaiopsis glomerulata, B. aculeata, and B. hainla form a clade.

Trees, to ca. 20 m tall, hermaphroditic. Branches prickly, ferruginous red tomentose when young. Leaves palmately compound, with 5-9 leaflets; petiole 30-50 cm, slender; petiolules 2-9 cm, slender, 1-1.5 mm in diameter; leaflets oblong, ovate-elliptic, or broadly lanceolate, 15-35 cm long, 6-15 cm wide, papery or subleathery, ferruginous stellate tomentose when young, soon glabrescent, secondary veins 7-10 (-12) pairs, base cuneate or broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire or sparsely serrulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, pendent, unarmed, ferruginous-red tomentose when young; primary axis more than 30 cm; peduncles 2-5 cm; umbels 2-3 cm in diameter; pedicels 0.8-1.5 cm at anthesis, 1-3.5 cm in fruit. Ovary 2-carpellate. Fruit globose or compressed-globose to didymo-globose, 7-10 mm in diameter; styles persistent, 1-2 mm.

Growing in dense forests on mountain slopes or in valleys; 400-2400 m.

Brassaiopsis glomerulata is used medicinally and as an ornamental.

Brassaiopsis glomerulata is a species of shrub in the family Araliaceae. Extracts are sold as bodybuilding supplements based on the assumption that aromatase inhibitors present in the plant might have effects in humans.