牯岭勾儿茶 gu ling gou er cha

Shrubs scandent or climbing, to 3 m tall. Branchlets spreading, yellow, turning pale brown, glabrous. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, basally connate; petiole 6-10 mm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially grayish green when dry, adaxially green, ovate-elliptic or ovate-oblong, 2-6.5 × 1.5-3.5 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 7-9(or 10) pairs, veins slightly prominent on both surfaces, base rounded or subcordate, apex obtuse-rounded or acute, mucronulate. Inflorescences 3-5 cm, glabrous. Flowers green, glabrous, usually 2- or 3-fascicled in subsessile or shortly pedunculate lax cymose racemes, rarely narrowly cymose panicles. Pedicels 2-3 mm, glabrous. Sepals triangular, margin ciliate, apex acuminate. Petals obovate. Drupe red when young, black-purple at maturity, narrowly cylindric, 7-9 mm, 3.5-4 mm in diam., with persistent cup-shaped disk at base; fruiting pedicel 2-3 mm, glabrous. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Apr-Jun of following year.

● Forests in valleys, forest margins, thickets; 300-2200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang.

The roots are used medicinally.

This species is quite similar to Berchemia polyphylla var. leioclada, but the latter differs in having shorter, pubescent petioles and fruit that matures within the same year.