蔓生鼠李 man sheng shu li

Shrubs small, climbing, with prostrate branches, unarmed. Branchlets slender, with numerous tuberculate lenticels; annual branches puberulent. Stipules needle-shaped, 3-4 mm, persistent; petioles very short, 1-2 mm, puberulent; leaf blade abaxially yellow-green, adaxially deep green, shiny, lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 × 0.8-1.5 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially puberulent on veins, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, prominent abaxially, conspicuously impressed adaxially, base broadly cuneate, margin slightly revolute, serrulate, apex acute. Flowers polygamous, 5-merous, 1-3-clustered in axils of small leaflike bracts, bracts narrowly elliptic, to 1 cm. Pedicels 5-6(-10) mm, puberulent. Bisexual flowers broadly campanulate. Sepals broadly ovate-triangular, ca. 2 mm, sparsely puberulent, adaxially with distinct midvein, apex acute. Petals absent. Stamens ca. 1 mm. Disk disk-shaped, thin. Ovary 3-loculed; style 3-fid or cleft to half. Drupe black at maturity, ca. 5 mm in diam., with persistent calyx tube at base, with 3 or sometimes 2 stones; fruiting pedicel 7-8 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 24.

Subalpine slopes; 2400-3000 m. S Xizang (Gyirong) [Bhutan, NW India, Nepal].

This species is very similar to Rhamnus heterophylla, but the latter differs in having flowers unisexual and plants dioecious, petals present, pedicels very short, 1-2 mm, seeds abaxially with furrow for ca. 4/5 of length, leaves papery, and petioles 2-7 mm.