豆腐柴 dou fu chai

Premna formosana Maximowicz; P. japonica Miquel; P. microphylla var. glabra Nakai.

Shrubs, erect. Branchlets pubescent when young, glabrescent. Leaves sessile or short petiolate with a winged petiole; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate, elliptic, ovate, or obovate, 3-13 X 1.5-6 cm, subglabrous to pubescent, base narrowly cuneate, margin entire or lobed to sometimes serrulate, apex long acuminate to acute. Inflorescences conical panicles. Calyx green and slightly purplish, cup-shaped, subequally 5-dentate, densely pubescent to subglabrous. Corolla yellowish, (6.5-)7(-9) mm, outside puberulent and glandular, inside pilose especially at throat. Fruit purple, globose to obovate. Fl. and fr. May-Oct.

Mixed forests on mountain slopes; 200-1000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan]

The species is extremely variable in leaf characters.