蛇藤 she teng

Ceanothus asiaticus Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 196. 1753.

Shrubs scandent, evergreen. Young branchlets glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole 1-1.6 cm, pilose; leaf blade ovate, broadly ovate, or cordate, 4-8 × 2-5 cm, submembranous or thinly papery, both surfaces glabrous or subglabrous, venation pinnate, secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base rounded or subcordate, margin coarsely crenate, apex acuminate, emarginate. Flowers yellow, 5-merous, few in axillary thyrses. Pedicel 2-3 mm. Calyx tube hemispherical; sepals 5, triangular, adaxially distinctly keeled. Petals 5, obovate, cucullate, ca. as long as stamens, clawed. Stamens 5. Disk fleshy. Ovary immersed in stout disk, 2- or 3-loculed; style ± deeply 2- or 3-fid. Capsule globose, 7-9 mm in diam., basally surrounded by remains of calyx tube, loculicidally dehiscent at maturity; locules 1-seeded; fruiting pedicel 4-6 mm. Seeds grayish brown. Fl. Jun-Sep, fr. Sep-Dec.

Forests and thickets, along beaches; sea level. S Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Africa, Australia, Pacific islands, West Indies (Greater and Lesser Antilles); an almost pantropical species reported for many coasts of the New and Old World Tropics].