Neocinnamomum caudatum (Nees) Merr.

Trees, 5-15(-20) m tall, 25-38 cm d.b.h. Bark gray-black. Branchlets terete, brown when dry, striate, puberulent. Buds small; bud scales thick and hairy. Leaves alternate; petiole 8-12 mm, subglabrous, slightly sulcate adaxially; leaf blade greenish when fresh or brownish when dry abaxially, green when fresh or brown when dry adaxially, ovate or ovate-oblong, (4-)5-12 × (2-)3-4.5 cm, papery, glabrous on both surfaces, trinerved, midrib and basal lateral veins elevated abaxially, plane or slightly impressed adaxially, transverse veins numerous, slender, subhorizontal and subparallel, connected by remote vertical veinlets, forming transversely elongate reticulum, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, or subrounded, apex acuminate, acumen obtuse. Glomerules usually 5-or 6-flowered, on 0.5-1 mm stalk, remotely arranged into a panicle, panicle axillary or terminal, up to 10 cm, erect, unbranched or few branched; branches upright, (1.5-)2-4 cm; rachis of panicle rusty pubescent; bracts subulate, less than 1 mm, densely rusty puberulent. Pedicels 2-6 mm. Flowers small, yellow-green, 4-8 mm. Perianth lobes 6, subequal, triangular-ovate, ca. 1.2 mm, slightly thickened, densely rusty puberulent outside and inside. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 1 mm; filaments villous, nearly as long as anthers, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 large stalkless glands at base, others glandless; anthers nearly square, those of 1st and 2nd whorls each with 2 introrse small cells and 2 lower introrse or lateral-introrse larger cells, those of 3rd whorl each narrower, with 2 upper extrorse cells and 2 lower lateral cells or with 4 cells arranged in an almost transverse series. Staminodes small, nearly estipitate. Ovary ellipsoid-ovoid, less than 1 mm; style longer; stigma discoid. Fruit narrowly ellipsoid, 1.5-2 × ca. 1 cm, red when ripe; perianth cup in fruit crateriform, 6-8 mm wide, with wilting persistent lobe at top; fruit stalk 0.5-1 cm, slightly dilated toward apex. Fl. (Jun-)Aug-Oct, fr. Oct-Feb of next year.

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in forests near streams. In southern China it grows between 500-1,800 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

The ripe fruit are eaten raw.