Saurauia tristyla DC. var. oldhamii Finet & Gagncp., Bull. Soc. Bot. 4:14. 1905; Liu, Ill. Nat. Intr. Lign. P1. Taiwan 1:259. f. 213. 1960; C. F. Liang in Fl. Reip. Popul. Sin. 49(2):298. 1984; Liu et al., Tr. Taiwan rev. ed. 442. 1994.
水冬瓜
Saurauia oldhamii Hemsl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 33:79. 1886 (Ind. F1. Sin.); Kanehira, Form. Tr. rev. ed. 451. f. 408. 1936; Li, Woody F1. Taiwan 575. f. 226.
1963; Fl. Taiwan 2:589. 1976.
Small trees or shrubs, evergreen; young branchlets hispid-hirsute. Leaves alternate, petiolate, membranaceous, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 15-20 cm. long , 6-8 cm. broad, acute to obtuse at the apex, acute at the base, entire to sparsely rigid-setose or subdenticulate toward the apex, glabrous above, setose along the midrib beneath, the lateral veins 12-13 per side, spreading; petioles slender, about 2-3 cm. long. Flowers small, about 1 cm. across, in short axillary pubescent cymes; peduncles slender, 2-3 cm. long; pedicels short, about 4 mm. long; sepals 5, subequal, orbicular, glabrous or glabrescent; petals 5; stamens numerous; ovary 3-celled, glabrous; styles 3; ovules many. Fruit a globose berry about 1 cm. across, whitish, with persistent calyx.
TAIPEI: Pingsi, C. I. Peng 15181(HAST). NANTOU: Jenlun forest road, H. Y. Shen et al. 140(HAST). PINGTUNG: Tahan logging, S. Z. Yang 27035(HAST). HUALIEN: Fuli, C.H. Chen et al. 359. ILAN: Fushan, S, C, Hsiao et al. 1163(HAST).
S. China to the Ryukyus. Taiwan, a common small tree or shrub in forests at low to medium altitudes.
