海南五层龙 hai nan wu ceng long

Climbing shrubs; branchlets gray-brown; annual branches densely verrucose lenticellate. Petiole strong and robust, 1.5-2 cm; leaf blade oblong-elliptic, 12-17 × 5-7.5 cm, leathery, abaxially light yellow, inconspicuously papillate, adaxially light black, shiny, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex shortly and broadly mucronate or inconspicuously acuminate; lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, broadly spreading, ascending. Fascicles axillary, several flowered; pedicel 1-1.5 cm, base with multicolumn small scales. Flowers yellow-green; sepals broadly elliptic, ca. 1 × 1.5 mm, margin membranous; petals horizontally spreading, elliptic, ca. 4.3 × 2.6 mm, apex rounded. Disk fleshy, cupular, 1-1.5 mm tall. Stamens 3; filaments flat, inserted at margin of disk. Ovary concealed in disk; ovules 2 per locule; style very short, thick. Fruit globose, ca. 4 cm in diam., glabrous, red when ripe, 1-3-seeded. Seeds elliptic, ca. 2.8 × 1.8 cm, black-brown when dry. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Oct.

● Mountainous forests; below 100-400 m. Hainan (Baoting).