川柃 chuan ling

Shrubs or trees, 2-8 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, subglabrous; current year branchlets terete and densely yellowish brown pubescent or 2-ribbed and pubescent only along ribs; terminal buds glabrous. Petiole 2-3 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 3-8.5 × 1-3.5, leathery, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, secondary and reticulate veins abaxially slightly raised and adaxially impressed, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrate, apex acute to acuminate and with an obtuse tip, abaxially yellowish green, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired. Pedicel 2-2.5 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles suborbicular, ca. 1 mm, glabrous, apex rounded and mucronate; sepals suborbicular, ca. 1.5 mm, outside glabrous, margin ciliolate, apex rounded to obtuse; petals obovate-oblong, ca. 4 mm; stamens 8-10; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles and sepals similar to those of male flowers but slightly smaller; petals ovate, 2-2.5 mm; ovary globose, glabrous, 3- or 4-loculed; styles 3 or 4, distinct, ca. 0.5 mm. Fruit bluish black when mature, globose, ca. 4 mm in diam. Fl. Nov-Mar, fr. May-Sep.

● Forests on mountain slopes; 1100-2800 m. E, SW, and W Sichuan, NE Yunnan.