Hook.f. & Thomson
Description
Illicium griffithii Hook.f. & Thomson is an aromatic evergreen tree or shrub of the eastern Himalaya and montane Southeast Asia. GBIF records it from Bhutan, NE India, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia (about 220 occurrences), a distribution centred on the wet temperate to subtropical forests of the eastern Sino-Himalaya. It grows in cool, humid, mossy broad-leaved and mixed conifer forest, often as an understorey component on damp slopes and ridges, typically between roughly 1,800 and 3,000 m; the illustrated plant is from Bhutan at Dochu-La, 3,000 m, in September, near the upper limit of its range.
The plant is a small to medium-sized tree with smooth bark and aromatic tissues. The leaves are alternate but crowded toward the branch tips in pseudowhorls, simple, entire, elliptic to oblanceolate, leathery, glabrous and gland-dotted, exuding an anise-like scent when crushed. The flowers are solitary and axillary, with numerous spirally arranged perianth segments grading from sepaloid to petaloid, pinkish to dark red, the stamens and free carpels also numerous in the manner of the basal angiosperms. The fruit is the characteristic star-shaped aggregate of (usually) 8–13 woody follicles arranged in a single whorl, each follicle opening to release a single glossy seed.
Illicium (Schisandraceae, formerly Illiciaceae) belongs to the basal angiosperm order Austrobaileyales. Like its relatives the seeds and fruit contain toxic sesquiterpene lactones (anisatin-type), and the star anise of this species is harvested locally for incense, flavouring and medicine, demanding care given its toxicity. The species is widespread within suitable montane forest and is not currently regarded as threatened.
Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Smith: A Taxonomic Review of Illicium (Sargentia)