Vasilis Teodoridis:
Lauraceae | Cinnamomum
25. Cinnamomum rigidissimum Hung T. Chang; Acta Sci. Nat. Univ. Sunyatseni. 1959(1): 19. 1959.
??? luan ye gui
Cinnamomum brevipedunculatum C. E. Chang; C. ovatum C. K. Allen (1939); not Lukmanoff (1889).
Small- to medium-sized trees; 3-22 m tall; ca. 50 cm d.b.h. Bark brown. Branchlets gray-brown or blackish brown; terete; glabrous; resin-scented; slightly compressed; angled especially when young; gray-brown tomentose when young. Leaves opposite; petiole (0.8-)1-2 cm; complanate; slightly sulcate adaxially; glabrous; leaf blade greenish and opaque abaxially; green and shiny adaxially; ovate; broadly ovate; or elliptic; (3.5-)4-7(-8) x (2.2-)2.5-4(-6) cm; leathery or thickly leathery; glabrous on both surfaces or sparsely puberulent initially but soon glabrate abaxially; triplinerved; midrib and basal lateral veins elevated on both surfaces; basal lateral veins arising at or up to 5(-7) mm above leaf base; arcuate; evanescent below leaf apex; with a few inconspicuous additional veins outside; sometimes also with additional delicate short veins from leaf base; transverse veins ± visible on both surfaces; veinlets reticulate and inconspicuous on both surfaces; base broadly cuneate or obtuse to subrounded; apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescence axillary on current year branchlets; subumbellate; 3-6(-8.5) cm; 3-7(-11)-flowered; peduncle 2-4 cm; sparsely appressed pubescent. Flowers unknown. Mature fruit ovoid; ca. 2 x 1.4 cm; cream-yellow; stalk ca. 5 mm; subterete; perianth cup in fruit greenish to green-blue; shallowly cupuliform; ca. 1 cm; apex truncate; ca. 1.5 cm wide.
? Forests by streams; below 1700 m. Guangdong; Guangxi; Hainan; Taiwan; Yunnan.