鼠刺 shu ci

Shrubs or small trees, 4-10 m tall, rarely much taller. Young branchlets yellow-green, glabrous; old branchlets brown, striate. Petiole 1-2 cm, glabrous, sulcate adaxially; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green, obovate or ovate-elliptic, 5-12(-15) × 3-6 cm, thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein distinctly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, secondary veins in 4 or 5 pairs, arcuate curved upward, connected near margin, base cuneate, margin obscurely crenate-serrulate distally, repand, or subentire, apex acute. Racemes axillary, solitary or rarely 2- or 3-fascicled, erect, usually shorter than leaves, 3-6(-9) cm, glabrous; rachis puberulous; bracts linear-subulate, 1-2 mm. Flowers numerous, 2- or 3-clustered, rarely solitary; pedicel slender, ca. 2 mm, puberulous. Calyx shallowly cupular, sparsely pubescent; lobes triangular-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, puberulous. Petals erect at anthesis, white, lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm, glabrous, apex emarginate. Stamens subequaling or slightly longer than petals; filaments puberulous. Ovary superior, densely villous. Stigma capitate. Capsule striate, oblong-lanceolate, 6-9 mm, puberulous. Fl. Mar-May, fr. May-Dec. 2n = 22.

Sparse forests, mountain slopes, valleys, streamsides, roadsides; 100-2400 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Laos, N Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

This is a widespread species variable in the shape, size, and marginal dentation of the leaf blades.