腺鼠刺 xian shu ci

Shrubs or small trees, 3-6 m tall. Branchlets robust, olive green or chestnut brown; bark densely glandular. Petiole stout, 1.2-2 cm, sulcate adaxially, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially distinctly green, oblong-elliptic, 8-16 × 4-7 cm, thickly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially sparsely glandular, midvein slightly impressed adaxially, broad, secondary veins in 6 or 7 pairs, arcuate ascending, reticulate veins prominent on both surfaces, base rounded-obtuse, margin irregularly spinose serrate except near base, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Racemes axillary, solitary, erect, shorter than leaves, 7-13 cm; rachis, bracts, pedicels, and calyces sparsely puberulous and sessile or substipitate reddish glandular; bracts leaflike, sometimes conspicuously elongate, to 1 cm. Flowers numerous; pedicel spreading to pendulous, 2-3 mm. Calyx shallowly cupular; lobes linear-lanceolate, shorter than or subequaling petals, 3-3.5 mm. Petals erect at anthesis, slightly curved apically, white, lanceolate, 3-4 mm, margin puberulous, sometimes sparsely glandular. Stamens conspicuously longer than petals and ovary, ca. 5 mm; filaments puberulous; anthers ovoid. Ovary superior, glabrous. Capsule ca. 7 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Nov.

* Forests and thickets on mountain slopes, roadsides. Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan.

This species is distinguished by having leaf blades thickly leathery, branchlets, raceme rachis, pedicels, bracts, and calyces with sessile or substipitate, reddish glands, and stamens conspicuously longer than the petals.