It looks very similar to the Illicium anisatum I had for many years except for the leaves and size.
ps. I looked at tropicos.org using the geosearch but didn't find any Illicium. There is the Chinese and Japanese species so you'd think it might extend south. It's the first thing that came to mind as it reminded me of my plant.
We also used to grow Illicium anisatum, floridatum and henryi....so I am familiar with them.
It was situated right in the centre of the village community.
