猫儿屎 mao er shi

Slackia insignis Griffith, Itin. Pl. Khasyah Mts. 2: 187. no. 977. 1848; Decaisnea fargesii Franchet.

Shrubs ca. 5 m tall. Branches robust and brittle, yellow when old; pith broad; lenticels orbicular to elliptic. Winter buds ovoid, apex acuminate, outer scales verrucose. Petiole 10--20 cm; leaf blade pinnately compound, 30--80 cm; leaflets 13--25, ovate to ovate-oblong, 6--14 × 3--7 cm, membranous, abaxially glaucous and pulverulent-puberulous but soon glabrescent, adaxially glabrous, base rounded to broadly cuneate, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate. Racemes 25--30(--40) cm. Pedicel 0.5--2 cm; bracteoles narrowly linear, 6--8 mm. Sepals ovate-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, striate, adpressed crisp, dusty puberulous or glabrous, apex long acuminate. Male flowers: outer 3 sepals 1.7--2(--3) cm; inner 3 sepals slightly shorter. Stamens 8--10 mm; filaments 3--4.5 mm, connate into a slender tube; anthers free, ca. 3.5 mm; connective apical appendage broad, flattened, hornlike, 2--2.5 mm. Pistillodes 1/2 as or rarely as long as filament tube. Female flowers: staminode filaments ca. 1.5 mm, connate into a ring; anthers free, 1.8--2 mm; connective apical appendage hornlike, 1--1.8 mm. Carpels conical, 5--7 mm. Stigma horseshoe-shaped, oblique. Fruit bluish black, pendulous, cylindric, 5--10 cm, ca. 2 cm in diam., verruculose, apex truncate but abaxial suture protruded into a conical umbo; surface with or without annular, depressed, and transverse traces. Seeds black to brown, obovoid to oblong, ca. 1 cm. Fl. Apr--Jun, fr. Jul--Aug.

Mixed forests, scrub on mountain slopes, wet area in ravines; 900--3600 m. S Anhui, S Gansu, E Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, E Zhejiang [Bhutan, NE India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

The fruits are edible.