Hemsley Snowball

Trees 5--12 m tall. Trunk to 12 cm d.b.h., bark dark brown. Branchlets hairy or glabrous. Leaves alternate but subopposite on basal part of branchlets; petiole 0.7--1.5 cm; leaf blade oblong to ovate-oblong, 8--12 X 4--6 cm, papery, scabrous, sparsely gray-brown stellate pubescent on veins, and gray-green to dark green when dried, base oblique and subrounded to broadly cuneate, margin serrate to subentire, apex slightly curved and acute to rarely acuminate, secondary veins 7--10 pairs, tertiary veins reticulate. Racemes terminal, 8--10-flowered, 9--15 cm, usually basally 2- or 3-branched. Pedicel 2--4 mm, slightly curved. Flowers 1.8--2.7 cm. Calyx 4--8 X 3--6 mm; teeth 5, subulate to deltoid, unequal, 2--3 mm, apex brown glandular dotted. Corolla lobes elliptic to elliptic-obovate, ca. 1.5 X 0.5 cm, acute. Stamens shorter than corolla; filaments sparsely white stellate villose on free part. Fruit globose to ovoid, 0.8--1.3 X 1--1.5 cm, rugose, densely yellow-brown to gray-yellow stellate tomentose, apex apiculate. Seeds 1 or 2, brown, smooth or sightly rugose, glabrous. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan.

* Mountain slopes and forest edges; 300--900 m.

Styrax hemsleyanus var. griseus Rehder.

Styrax hemsleyanus (老鸹铃), the Hemsley snowball, is a species of flowering plant in the family Styracaceae, native to central China. Growing to 12 m (39 ft) tall by 5 m (16 ft) broad, it is a conical deciduous tree with large rounded leaves, 12 cm (5 in) long, and clusters of cup-shaped flowers in early summer.

The plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.