穿心柃 chuan xin ling

Shrubs or trees, 3-5 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets pale green to reddish brown, 2-ribbed, glabrous; terminal buds glabrous. Petiole very short; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate, 6-18 × 2.5-5 cm, rigidly leathery to leathery, abaxially reddish brown when dry, adaxially dark yellowish green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 14-16 on each side of midvein and visible or slightly raised on both surfaces, base auriculate-amplexicaul, margin closely serrulate and slightly revolute, apex acuminate. Flowers axillary, 2 or more in a cluster. Pedicel ca. 1 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles orbicular, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; sepals suborbicular, 2-3 mm, leathery, outside pubescent, apex rounded and retuse; petals broadly ovate, ca. 4 mm; stamens numerous; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles and sepals similar to those of male flowers but slightly smaller; petals oblong-obovate, ca. 3 mm; ovary ovoid, glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 1 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit ovoid, to 11 × ca. 7 mm. Fl. Nov-Dec, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Forests on mountain slopes; 600-800 m. C and SW Fujian, N Guangdong.