Microtropis japonica (Fr. & Sav.) Hal L. fil.

Evergreen small trees or shrubs; branchlets glabrous, dark gray-brown. Petiole 2-12 mm; leaf blade elliptic, broadly elliptic, rhombic-elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, 4.5-8 × 2-4 cm, leathery, base cuneate or decurrent up to 1 cm, margin slightly revolute, apex obtuse to obtusely acute, sometimes emarginate; secondary veins 4-6 pairs. Cymes axillary or terminal; peduncle 10-15 mm, 2 or 3(or 4) × dichotomously branched, secondary peduncle 1-4 cm; terminal flowers on subaxes sessile; longest pedicels up to 2.5 mm. Flowers ca. 5 mm wide, yellowish white; sepals 5, thick, broadly semiorbicular, 1-1.5 × 2-2.5 mm, margin irregularly serrulate, persistent in fruit; petals 5, slightly fleshy, oblong, ca. 3 mm. Disk annular, fleshy, with 5 very shallow lobes. Stamens 5; filament very short, inserted on disk. Ovary with short, thick style. Capsule oblong, 1.5-2 × 0.7-1 cm, apex finely mucronate, surface with fine and longitudinal crest. Seed obovate-elliptic, 1-1.2 cm, surface vermilion or dark red. Fl. ca. Apr.

Forests. Taiwan [Japan].

Elaeodendron japonicum Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. 2: 310. 1879; Cassine japonica (Franchet & Savatier) Kuntze; C. kotoensis Hayata; Microtropis kotoensis (Hayata) Koidzumi; Otherodendron japonicum (Franchet & Savatier) Makino.