Bridelia balansae Tutcher

Bridelia balansae has often been misidentified in Chinese floras as B. insulana Hance, which occurs from S Myanmar and S Thailand southward.

Collections from Yunnan tend to have wider and more chartaceous leaves and often more flowers per glomerule. Thus they intergrade morphologically with Bridelia glauca, which has many conspicuously pedicelled flowers and a more truncate leaf base, but is rarely collected in China.

The name "Bridelia pachinensis Hayata" belongs here but was never validly published.

Zhang and Qiu (Guihaia 19(3): 195. 1999) reported first records of Bridelia harmandii Gagnepain from China (Hainan). The second author (Dressler) has seen one of their cited vouchers (S. K. Lau 4920, A!, E!) which is B. tomentosa. Nevertheless, the species might occur in China given that it grows in nearby Indochina and Thailand. It resembles a small-leaved B. stipularis but differs by the much smaller flowers and being a small decumbent shrub; it also resembles a broad-leaved B. tomentosa but has stiffer, more leathery leaves, a strong indumentum in most parts, persistent subulate stipules, and fewer flowers per glomerule (see Dressler, Blumea 41: 281. 1996).

Trees up to 17 m tall, ca. 30 cm in d.b.h., monoecious; bark fulvous, nearly smooth; branchlets glabrous with elevated lenticels. Stipules linear-lanceolate, 2-3 mm, yellowish or brownish puberulent; petiole 3-8 mm; leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 5-15 × 1.5-5.5 cm, leathery or nearly so, abaxially glabrous or only puberulent, adaxially glossy when dried, base cuneate, rarely obtuse, margin slightly revolute, apex acute, acuminate, or caudate-acuminate; lateral veins (5-)8-11(or 12) pairs. Glomerules axillary, up to 12-flowered, glabrous except for yellowish pubescent sepals and petals. Male flowers 3-4 mm in diam.; pedicel up to 2 mm; sepals triangular, 1.5-2 × 1.2-2 mm; petals elliptic to spatulate, 0.3-0.5 mm; disk shallowly cup-shaped, 2-3 mm in diam.; staminal column ca. 1 mm; free filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers ovoid, 0.6-0.8 × 0.4-0.5 mm; rudimentary ovary ovoid-conical. Female flowers 4-5 mm in diam.; pedicels ca. 1 mm; sepals as in male; petals rhomboid-rounded, ca. 1 mm; disk urceolate ca. 1 mm enclosing ovary, lacerate when ovary expands; ovary globose to ovoid; styles 2, free, ca. 1.5 mm, bifid, lobes linear. Fruiting pedicel very stout, up to 3 mm; drupes oblong-ovoid, 8-12 × 5-8 mm, purple-black when mature, 1-celled. Seeds ellipsoid with deep lateral groove, 6-8 × 4-5 mm, brownish, smooth. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Vietnam].

Montane dense or sparse forests; 200-1000 m.