蒙古荚蒾 meng gu jia mi

Lonicera mongolica Pallas, Reise Russ. Reich. 3: 721. 1771; Viburnum davuricum Pallas.

Shrubs, deciduous, to 2 m tall. Bark gray-yellowish. Branchlets of current year yellow-whitish stellate-tomentose; branchlets of previous year yellow-whitish, very rounded, glabrous, with dispersed, small, rounded lenticels. Winter buds naked, yellow-whitish stellate-tomentose. Leaves always opposite, not clustered at apices of branchlets; stipules absent; petiole green, robust, 4-10 mm, yellow-whitish stellate-tomentose; leaf blade abaxially gray-greenish and adaxially yellowish green when young, broadly ovate to elliptic, rarely suborbicular, 2.5-5(-6) × 1.5-3 cm, papery, abaxially stellate-pubescent, adaxially stellate-pubescent or forked-hairy, midvein raised abaxially, lateral veins 4- or 5-jugate, pinnate, arched, branched, anastomosing near margin, raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially or inconspicuous, veinlets transverse, inconspicuous on both surfaces, not lobed, base rounded or cuneate-rounded, without glands, margin crenulate, with tips of teeth mucronate, apex acute or obtuse. Flowers appearing after leaves; inflorescence a compound umbel-like cyme, terminal, 1.5-3.5 cm in diam.; rays whorled; first node of inflorescence with 5 or fewer rays, few flowered, yellow-whitish stellate-tomentose, without large sterile radiant flowers; peduncle 5-10 mm; bracts caducous, leaflike, green, linear to linear-lanceolate, stellate-pubescent; bracteoles linear. Flowers mostly on rays of 1st order, not fragrant, sessile. Calyx greenish; tube oblong-tubular, 3-5 mm, glabrous; lobes repand, very small, 0.5-1 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Corolla yellowish whitish, tubular-campanulate, ca. 3 mm in diam., glabrous; tube 5-7 mm; lobes spreading, orbicular-ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, shorter than tube, apex rounded, margin entire. Stamens nearly as long as corolla, inserted near base of corolla tube; filaments ca. 6 mm; anthers yellow, oblong, ca. 2 mm. Styles taller than calyx lobes; stigmas capitate. Fruit initially turning red, maturing black, ellipsoid, ca. 1 cm, base rounded, apex rounded, glabrous; pyrenes compressed, oblong, ca. 8 × 5-6 mm, with 2 shallow dorsal grooves and 3 shallow ventral grooves, apex rounded. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 18(16).

Sparse forests; 800-2700 m. S Gansu, Hebei (Neiqiu), Henan, Nei Mongol, S Ningxia, NE Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi [Mongolia, Russia].