苦皮藤 ku pi teng

Celastrus latifolius Hemsley.

Deciduous twining shrubs; branchlets dark brown, 4-6-angular; lenticels dense, prominent, orbicular to elliptic, white; axillary buds ovate, 2-4 mm. Petiole 1.5-3 cm, strong; leaf blade ovate to orbicular, 7-18 × 5-14 cm, leathery, light green, glabrous, base cuneate, margin crenate, apex acute to shortly acuminate; secondary veins 5-7 pairs, obviously prominent on adaxial surface. Paniculate thyrses terminal, apically branched, 10-20 cm, 1- or 2-ramous; rachis and pedicels glabrous or with russet short hairs; pedicels short, jointed at apex. Flowers small, greenish, dioecious; sepals valvate, triangular to ovate, ca. 1.2 mm, margin approximately entire; petals rectangular, ca. 2 × 1.2 mm, margin erose. Disk carnose, discoid, slightly 5-lobed. Stamens ca. 3 mm, inserted on disk; staminodia in female flowers ca. 1 mm. Pistils 3-4 mm; ovary globose; style reflexed; pistillodes in male flowers ca. 1.2 mm. Capsule globose, yellow, 8-10 mm wide, 3-valved, adaxial side of valves with brown macula. Seeds elliptic, 3.5-5.5 × 1.5-3 mm; aril bright red. Fl. May-Jun.

● Mountain thickets, slopes; 1000-2500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Yunnan.