秃小耳柃 tu xiao er ling

Shrubs 1-2 m tall. Young branches grayish brown to dark brown, slender, terete; current year branchlets densely spreading villous; terminal buds densely villous. Petiole ca. 1 mm, sparsely villous; leaf blade oblong, 2-3.5 × 0.7-1.2 cm, papery, abaxially pale green and villous along midvein, adaxially green, shiny, and glabrous, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially impressed, secondary veins ca. 12 on each side of midvein and obscure on both surfaces, base obliquely auriculate and slightly amplexicaul, margin obtusely serrulate, apex shortly acute to shortly acuminate and with an obtuse to emarginate tip. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster. Pedicel ca. 1 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles very small, broadly ovate, glabrous; sepals ovate to oblong-ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse and mucronulate; petals lanceolate, 3-4 mm; stamens 5-10; anthers 3- or 4-locellate; pistillode sparsely pubescent. Female flowers: bracteoles, sepals, and petals similar but slightly smaller than those of male flowers; ovary globose, very sparsely pubescent when young, soon glabrescent, 3-loculed; style 2-2.5 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit dark blue when mature, ovoid to ovoid-globose, ca. 4.5 mm, glabrous. Seeds brown, obliquely ovoid, shiny. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Mar-Apr.

● Forests on mountain slopes, bamboo forests; 800-1200 m. S Guangdong.