山石榴 shan shi liu

Gardenia spinosa Thunberg, Gardenia, 16. 1780; G. dumetorum Retzius; Randia dumetorum (Retzius) Lamarck; Randia spinosa (Thunberg) Poiret; Xeromphis retzii Rafinesque; X. spinosa (Thunberg) Keay.

Shrubs or small trees, 1-10 m tall; branches rather stout, hirsute, pilose, pilosulous, or puberulent to glabrescent, armed with axillary stout paired thorns 1-5 cm. Petiole 2-8 mm, pilose, pilosulous, or hirtellous to glabrous; leaf blade drying papery or subleathery, obovate or oblong-obovate or rarely ovate to spatulate, 1.8-11 × 1-5.7 cm, both surfaces glabrous to strigillose, strigose, hirtellous, or sparsely hirsute at least along principal veins, base cuneate and sometimes decurrent, margins entire or often shortly ciliate, apex acute; secondary veins 4-7 pairs, often with pilosulous domatia in abaxial axils; stipules caducous, ovate to broadly triangular, 3-4.5 mm, acute to aristate. Inflorescences terminal on lateral short shoots together with tufted leaves, 1-3-flowered; pedicels 2-5 mm, brown villous or -hirtellous. Calyx brown villous, -hirtellous, or -strigose; ovary portion ovoid to ellipsoid, 3.5-7 × 4-5.5 mm; limb slightly dilated, deeply lobed; lobes broadly elliptic to oblanceolate or obovoid, 5-8 × 3-6 mm, acute to rounded. Corolla white, becoming pale yellow with age, campanulate; tube 5-6 mm, sparsely villous in throat; lobes ovate or ovate-oblong, 6-11 × (5.5-)8-9 mm, spreading, rounded to subtruncate. Anthers ca. 3 mm, fully exserted. Style 4-6 mm; stigma fusiform, with 2 coherent lobes, ca. 2 mm. Berry globose, 2-4 cm in diam., glabrous or sparsely pilose or strigose; seeds 4-5 mm. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. May-Jan.

Thickets or forests at streamsides, on hills or mountain slopes, or in valleys or fields; near sea level to 1600 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kashmir, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, Madagascar].

W. C. Chen (in FRPS 71(1): 338-340. 1999) noted that this species is sometimes climbing, but this has not been noted by any other authors nor seen on specimens.