箣柊 ce zhong

Phoberos chinensis Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 318. 1790; P. cochinchinensis Loureiro; Scolopia siamensis Warburg.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 2-6 m tall; bark grayish; twig tips puberulous (viewed at × 20 mag.), branchlets glabrous, branches and branchlets often spiny; spines simple, 1-5 cm. Petiole short, 3-5 mm, puberulous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 4-7 × 2-4 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, slender, basal 1 or 2 pairs high ascending, reticulate veins clear on both surfaces (at × 10 mag. or less), not sparse, base broadly acute to subrounded, margin entire to serrulate, with a pair of glands at junction of blade and petiole, glands much larger than those elsewhere on margin, apex broadly acute to rounded, tip apiculate or with a very short blunt acumen 1-2 mm. Racemes axillary or terminal, 2-6 cm, puberulous. Pedicels 4-10 mm, puberulous. Flowers yellowish, ca. 4 mm in diam. Sepals 4 or 5(-7), ovate-triangular, 1-1.5 mm, abaxially pubescent, margin ciliate. Petals obovate-oblong, 1.5-2 mm, to 1.5 × as long as sepals, outside sparsely pubescent to subglabrous, margin ciliate. Disk glands 10, fleshy. Stamens ca. 5 mm; anthers globose, connective with conspicuous appendage at apex, appendage ca. as long as connective, usually with 1 to few hairs at tip. Ovary ovoid; placentas 2 or 3, each with 2 pendulous ovules; style ca. 2 mm in young flowers, soon to 5 mm; stigma minutely lobed. Berry brownish red, dark purple, or black, orbicular-globose, (5-)8-10 mm in diam. Seeds (2-)4-6. Fl. Jun-Sep, fr. Oct-Apr of following year.

Sparse forests and thickets in hilly regions at low elevations, among rocks near coast; 50-400 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan [Laos, Thailand, Vietnam; cultivated and/or naturalized in India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka].

Scolopia crenata (Wight) Clos was treated as a synonym of S. chinensis in FRPS (52(1): 16. 1999). However, S. crenata is, in fact, a different species that is distributed in India and the Andaman Islands.