粉背南蛇藤 fen bei nan she teng

Erythrospermum hypoleucum Oliver, Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 19: t. 1899. 1889; Celastrus hypoglaucus Hemsley.

Twining shrubs; branches with sparse broadly elliptic or approximately orbicular lenticels, young branchlets without lenticels; axillary buds small, orbicular-triangular, ca. 2 mm wide. Petiole 1.2-2 cm; leaf blade elliptic to rectangular-elliptic, 6-9.5 × 2.5-5.5 cm, abaxial surface gray, adaxial surface green, glabrous, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex shortly acuminate; secondary veins 5-7 pairs. Thyrses terminal and axillary, terminal thyrses 7-10 cm, many flowered, axillary ones short and small, 3-7-flowered; rachis short; pedicels 2-8 mm, jointed above middle. Sepals approximately triangular, apex obtuse; petals rectangular or elliptic, ca. 4.3 mm. Disk cupuliform. Stamens ca. 4 mm; staminodia in female flowers ca. 1.5 mm. Pistils ca. 3 mm; ovary elliptic; stigma flat; pistillodes in male flowers ca. 2 mm. Terminal infructescence long and pendulous, axillary ones mainly fruitless. Capsule globose, adaxial side of valves with brownish red macula; stipes slender, 1-2.5 cm. Seeds convex or slightly crescentiform, 4-5 × 1.4-2 mm, black to blackish brown. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Oct.

● Forests; 400-2700 m. Anhui, E Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.