Callerya nitida in Flora of China @ efloras.org

16. Callerya nitida (Bentham) R. Geesink, Leiden Bot. Ser. 8: 83. 1984.

亮叶鸡血藤 liang ye ji xue teng

Shrubs, scandent, 2-10 m. Stems rusty brown, finely puberulent, glabrescent. Leaves 5-foliolate; rachis 15-20 cm, including petiole 3-6 cm; leaflet blades lanceolate, oblong, or ovate, 3.5-9(-11) × 2-4 cm, papery, secondary veins 5 or 6 on each side of midvein, curved apically near margins, and prominent on both surfaces, base obtuse to rounded, apex cuspidate, acute, or acuminate. Panicles terminal, 10-12 cm, thick, rusty tomentose; flowering branchlets 6-10 cm, straight. Flowers 1.6-2.4 cm. Pedicel and calyx tomentose. Corolla violet to purple; standard oblong, with 2 basal calluses, outside densely sericeous. Ovary stipitate, tomentose, with 4-8 ovules. Legume linear-oblong, 10-14 × 1.5-2 cm, stipitate, flat, brown tomentose, apex beaked. Seeds 4 or 5 per legume, chestnut-brown, obliquely oblong, ca. 1 × 1.2 cm. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Jul-Nov.

● Thickets, lowland sparse woodlands, forest margins, open places on slopes; near sea level to 1500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

1 Leaflet blades 5-9(-11) × 3-4 cm, abaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulent, adaxially glabrous and shiny but sometimes sparsely puberulent on midvein, apex acute to cuspidate; flowers 2.2-2.4 cm. 16a var. nitida

+ Leaflet blades 3.5-5.5 × 2-3 cm, both surfaces glabrous or glabrescent or abaxially densely reddish brown hirsute becoming blackened when dry and adaxially opaque and rough, apex acuminate or cuspidate; flowers 1.6-1.8 cm (2)

2 (1) Leaflet blades lanceolate, both surfaces glabrous or glabrescent, apex acuminate. 16b var. minor

+ Leaflet blades ovate, abaxially densely reddish brown hirsute becoming blackened when dry, adaxially opaque and rough, apex cuspidate. 16c var. hirsutissima

Lower Taxa