白果越桔 bai guo yue ju

Epigynium leucobotrys Nuttall, Bot. Mag. 85: t. 5103. 1859; Vaccinium serratum (G. Don) Wight var. leucobotrys (Nuttall) C. B. Clarke.

Shrubs evergreen, terrestrial or epiphytic, 0.5–1 m tall, with inflated root tubers. Twigs rounded, densely puberulous and brown setulose, scabrous, glabrescent; persistent bud scales lanceolate. Leaves 4–6-pseudoverticillate; petiole very short or leaves subsessile; leaf blade oblong or oblong-ovate, 3–5(–7) × 1.8–3 cm, papery, glabrous, secondary veins spreading, 7–9, secondary and fine veins raised abaxially, slightly raised adaxially, base rounded to slightly cordate, margin slightly recurved, denticulate, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences racemose, 2–3 cm, glabrous, with persistent bud scales, many flowered; bracts caducous, to 6 mm. Pedicel 2–3 mm. Hypanthium 0.8–1.2 mm, glabrous; calyx lobes triangular, 1–1.3 mm. Corolla white to greenish white, urceolate, ca. 5 mm, glabrous; lobes ca. 0.5 mm. Filaments ca. 0.5 mm, glabrous; anthers ca. 3 mm, without spurs; tubules ca. as long as thecae. Berry 10-pseudoloculed, white, slightly depressed, 5–7 mm in diam.; pedicel red, clavate, (0.7–)1–1.2 cm, thickened upwards. Fl. Mar–Apr, fr. May–Aug.

Evergreen forests, sometimes epiphytic on trees, rocks; 2100–2800 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [NE India (Assam), Myanmar].