苦刺 ku ci

Shrubs ca. 1 m tall, erect, pubescent overall with dense, stalked or sessile, (3-)5-9-rayed stellate hairs. Stems and branches occasionally armed with 1 or 2 prickles less than 1 mm. Leaves unequal paired; petiole 1.5-2.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, 5.5-10.5 × 4-8.5 cm, green and sparsely tomentose with 5-9-rayed stellate hairs adaxially, yellow-green with denser hairs abaxially, unarmed, base truncate to broadly cuneate, margin 5-7-sinuate, apex acute. Inflorescences extra-axillary, 10- or 11-flowered scorpioid cymes to 2 cm; peduncle 1.5-1.8 cm. Pedicel 4-5 mm, strongly recurved, ca. 1 cm in fruit, stellate tomentose. Calyx ca. 4 mm; lobes ovate, 1.5 mm, acute, stellate tomentose. Corolla white, campanulate, ca. 1 cm; lobes ovate-lanceolate, ca. 5 mm. Filaments less than 1 mm; anthers oblong, ca. 4 mm. Style ca. 7 mm, stellate-pubescent. Berry globose, ca. 1 cm in diam. Seeds discoid, ca. 2 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. autumn.

* Roadsides; 1400-1500 m. Yunnan.