梗花雀梅藤 geng hua que mei teng

Berchemia cavaleriei H. Léveillé; Sageretia cavaleriei (H. Léveillé) C. K. Schneider.

Shrubs scandent, rarely small trees, ca. 2.5 m tall, unarmed or spinose; branchlets red-brown, glabrous; old branches gray-black. Leaves alternate or subopposite; stipules subulate, 1-1.5 mm; petiole 5-13 mm, glabrous; leaf blade brownish on both sides when dry, oblong, narrowly elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, 5-12 × 2.5-5 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 5 or 6(or 7) pairs, prominent abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin minutely serrulate, apex caudate-acuminate, rarely acute. Flowers white or yellow, solitary or few fascicled in axillary or terminal lax racemes; rachis to 15 cm, glabrous. Pedicels 1-3 mm. Calyx tube shallowly cup-shaped; lobes triangular, adaxially distinctly keeled and with minute apical beak, apex acute. Petals spatulate, slightly shorter than stamens, apex emarginate. Ovary 3-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule. Drupe purple-red at maturity, elliptic or obovoid-globose, 5-6 mm, 4-5 mm in diam., 2- or 3-loculed; fruiting pedicel 1-4 mm. Seeds 2, flat, both ends emarginate. Fl. Jul-Nov, fr. Mar-Jun of following year.

● Dense forests, mountain thickets; 400-2500 m. Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, S Zhejiang.

The fruit is used medicinally for heart and stomach diseases.