柳叶绣球 liu ye xiu qiu

Shrubs 0.8-2 m tall. First year's branchlets purplish, brownish when dry. Second year's branchlets usually white, glabrous, without lenticels; bark not peeled off. Petiole 1-2 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially usually purple-red, purplish green when dry, adaxially yellow-green when dry, lanceolate to narrowly so, 8-20 × 1-2.7(-4.5) cm, abaxially sparsely appressed puberulous, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 7-10 on both sides of midvein, slightly conspicuous on both surfaces, base narrowly cuneate to subacute, margin slightly reflexed, sparsely serrulate, apex obtusely acuminate. Inflorescences corymbose cymes, 5-12 wide, apex truncate to slightly arcuate; peduncle 4-12 cm; branches 3, pubescent. Sterile flowers with sepals 3 or 4, ovate, broadly so, or suborbicular, unequal, 1-1.8 × 0.9-1.5 cm, margin entire or few denticulate. Fertile flowers with calyx tube shallowly cupular, ca. 1 × 2 mm, pilose; teeth lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 mm. Petals green-white, elliptic to narrowly so, 3-4 × 1-1.5 mm, base with a claw ca. 0.5 mm, apex subacute. Stamens 8-10, subequal, 2.5-3 mm; anthers broadly oblong, 1-1.5 mm. Ovary nearly 1/2 superior. Styles 3 or 4, erect or slightly spreading, 1.5-2 mm in fruit; stigmas capitate, small. Capsule broadly ellipsoid, 2.5-4 mm in diam., projected apical part 2-2.5 mm, slightly longer than calyx tube. Seeds brownish, ovoid-globose to ellipsoid, 0.6-0.8 mm, wingless; seed coat net veined. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.

* Dense to sparse forests or thickets in valleys or on mountain slopes; 700-800 m. N and W Guangdong, SW Jiangxi.