小花羊奶子 xiao hua yang nai zi

Shrubs, deciduous or semievergreen, erect, 2-3 m tall. Spines not seen; young branches with dense yellowish brown scales. Petiole 7-10 mm, with yellowish green scales similar to those of adaxial leaf surface; leaf blade abaxially light green, adaxially brownish green when dried, elliptic or oblanceolate, 5-8.5 × 2-3.5 cm, papery, abaxially with ± contiguous to separate grayish white scales, scales shallowly umbonate, shallowly erose-fimbriate, sometimes also with a few stellate hairs, adaxally with scales deeply divided or forming stellate hairs, soon lost, lateral veins 4-6 per side of midrib, slender and inconspicuous, base obtuse or rounded, margin entire, apex acuminate. Flowers often 3-6 in dense axillary cluster. Pedicel 3-5 mm. Flowers light brown or white, small, outside with overlapping brown and white scales, hairs absent, scales not umbonate, irregularly shallowly lobed, shortly fimbriate. Calyx tube cupular-obconic, 3-3.5 mm, abruptly widening at base of lobes; lobes ovate or ovate-triangular, 2-2.5 mm, inside with dense stellate hairs/deeply divided scales, these not appressed. Filaments nearly absent; anthers exserted, purple, oblong, ca. 1.3 mm. Style erect, glabrous; stigma 1-2 mm. Fruit not seen. Fl. Oct-Dec.

● Open mountain slopes; 2400-2500 m. N Yunnan.