吕宋茄 lü song qie

Shrubs or subshrubs 50-100 cm tall, densely stellate-tomentose, armed with short, straight prickles 2-3.5 mm. Stems and branches terete, stellate tomentose, sparsely prickly. Petiole 1-3 cm, pubescent as on stems; leaf blade lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 4-15 × 1.5-5 cm, sparsely stellate tomentose or glabrate adaxially, tomentose abaxially, base cuneate, margin entire or obscurely sinuate, apex acute. Inflorescences extra-axillary or terminal, racemose panicles to 3 cm; peduncle 1-1.8 cm, stellate tomentose. Pedicel ca. 5 mm. Calyx campanulate, ca. 3 mm; lobes oblong-ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, acute or obtuse, stellate tomentose. Corolla violet, 6-8 mm, 5-lobed; lobes oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 5-6 mm, adaxially pubescent as on calyx. Filaments short; anthers lanceolate, narrowed upward, ca. 4 mm. Fruiting pedicel 1-2.5 cm, stellate tomentose. Fruiting calyx stellate hairy. Berry red, globose, 6-10 mm in diam., glabrous. Seeds reniform, discoid, ca. 3 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-Aug, fl. Jul-Oct.

Hillsides. Taiwan (Botel Tobago, Taidong) [Philippines]

No material from China was seen, and the description is based on specimens from the Philippines and on the account in Flora of Taiwan (4: 542. 1978).