Cratoxylum cochinchinense (Lour.) Blume

Tree or shrub, to c. 30 m tall, deciduous, glabrous; bark smooth, pale or scaly, grey-brown; young shoots with interpetiolar scar continuous or interrupted. Leaves with petiole 2-5 mm, 3-10½ by 1-4 cm, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, apex obtuse to acutely acuminate, base broadly cuneate to attenuate, herbaceous to chartaceous, nearly alwAays glaucous beneath. Inflorescence of 1-5-flowered axillary and usually terminal cymules; pedicels 1-2 mm. Flowers heterodistylous. Sepals 5-7 by 2-5 mm. Petals dark red to pink or orange, 5-10 by 2½-5 mm. Stamen fascicles 4-8 mm long, with stamens ± congested, c. 45-55 per fascicle; anther gland sometimes present. Staminodial fascicles (if developed) yellow, up to 3 mm long, flattened, oblong to obovate, cucullate. Ovary 2-3 mm long; styles 1-3 mm. Capsule 8-12 by 4-5 mm, c. 1-1½ times as long as sepals, ellipsoid-cylindric, with columella basal. Seeds (5-)6-8 per loculus, 6-8 by 2-3 mm, oblanceolate to elliptic or oblong.

Primary and secondary forests, thickets, grassland, dry sunny mountain slopes, hills; usually on well-drained soils of various types. at elevations up to 500 metres, ascending to 1,200 metres in southern China.

The young fruit are used as a spice. The young leaves are used for tea. The leaves are also used in soup dishes and also eaten raw.

Can be grown by seedlings.