小柄果海桐 xiao bing guo hai tong

Shrubs ca. 1.5 m tall. Young branchlets gray, slender, glabrous; old branchlets occasionally sparsely lenticellate. Leaves 3–5-clustered at branchlet apex, appearing opposite; petiole 6–10 mm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, green adaxially, slightly shiny after drying, narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, slightly curved, 6–12 × 1.5–2.5 cm, leathery, glabrous, lateral veins 5–7-paired, slightly convex abaxially, indistinct adaxially, reticulate veins indistinct on both surfaces, margin flat. Flowers not seen. Infructescences terminal, umbellate, 2–6-capsuled; bracts numerous, scalelike, broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm, membranous, glabrous, margin ciliate. Capsule cylindric or ellipsoid, 1.3–1.5 × 0.7–0.8 cm; pericarp elliptic, ca. 1.5 × 1.1 cm, less than 0.4 mm thick, thinly leathery, prominently hortizontally striate adaxially; placentas in middle part of valves; pedicel ca. 1 cm, glabrous; stipe ca. 2 mm; persistent style ca. 2 mm, 2-lobed. Seeds 8–12 in total, ca. 4 mm; funicle ca. 2 mm. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Jun–Oct.

Forests, forest margins, thickets, valleys; 800--1500 m. Chongqing (Nanchuan Xian), Guizhou, SE Sichuan (Xingwen Xian).