红褐柃 hong he ling

Shrubs 2.5-3.5 m tall. Older branches grayish white; young branches grayish brown, 2-ribbed; current year branchlets yellowish green, 2-ribbed, glabrous; terminal buds glabrous. Petiole ca. 2 mm or less; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to sometimes oblong-lanceolate, 6-12 × 1.5-4 cm, leathery, abaxially reddish brown when dry, adaxially dark green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially slightly impressed, secondary veins 13-15 on each side of midvein and slightly raised on both surfaces, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, rounded, or rarely subcordate, apex acute to shortly acuminate and with an obtuse tip, margin closely serrulate and revolute. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles ovate to ovate-orbicular, ca. 0.5 mm, apex acute to subrounded and mucronate; sepals suborbicular, ca. 2 mm, subleathery, outside pubescent or glabrous, apex rounded and retuse; petals obovate, 3-4 mm; stamens ca. 15; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles and sepals similar to those of male flowers but slightly smaller; petals oblong-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm; ovary ovoid, glabrous, 3-loculed; style 1-1.5 mm, apically 3-parted to almost distinct. Fruit purplish black when mature, globose to ovoid, ca. 4 mm. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Apr-Aug.

● Forests, thickets; 400-800 m. S Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, S Hunan, S Jiangsu, Jiangxi, SE Yunnan, Zhejiang.