薜荔 bi li

Shrubs, climbers or scandent. Rooting branchlets sterile. Stipules lanceolate, with yellow brown silklike hairs. Leaves distichous, leaf blade on fertile branchlets different in shape than ones on sterile branches, ovate-cordate, ovate-elliptic, or oblong-ovate, 5-12 × 2-5 cm, abaxially pubescent, base rounded to slightly cordate, margin entire, apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate; veins conspicuous, honeycomblike; basal lateral veins elongated, secondary veins 3 or 4 on each side of midvein, abaxially prominent, and adaxially impressed. Figs axillary on normal leafy branches, solitary, yellowish green to pale red when mature, pear-shaped to ± globose or cylindric, 4-8 × 3-5 cm, shortly yellow pubescent when young, basally attenuate into a short stalk, apical pore truncate, navel-like, or acuminate; peduncle to ca. 1 cm, thick; involucral bracts triangular-ovate, densely covered with long pubescence, persistent. Male flowers: many, in several rows near apical pore, pedicellate; calyx lobes 2 or 3, linear; stamens 2; filaments short. Gall flowers: pedicellate; calyx lobes 3 or 4, linear; style lateral, short. Female flowers: pedicel long; calyx lobes 4 or 5; achenes ± globose, with adherent liquid. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Vietnam].

The position of Ficus pumila var. lutchuensis Koidzumi (Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 39: 14. 1925) is uncertain as no material has been seen by the authors. It most likely belongs to var. pumila.