文山山柑 wen shan shan gan

Shrubs, scandent, to 10 m tall, smooth, glabrous except on petals. Twigs with yellow hemispheric raised areas; new twigs dark brown but tan-colored when dry, nearly terete, obviously sulcate, pith white. Stipular spines 2-3 mm, stout, recurved. Petiole subterete, 5-11 mm; leaf blade orbicular-lanceolate, 9-12 × 3-4 cm, firmly papery when mature, both surfaces yellowish green when dry, midvein dark red, slightly broad, abaxially raised, and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 9 or 10(-13) on each side of midvein, slender, and slightly raised on both surfaces, reticulate veins not very obvious, base cuneate and slightly asymmetric, apex acute to acuminate and with a 2-3-mm mucronate tip. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, corymbs, 3-5-flowered, without microphylls; peduncle flat, 1-3 cm. Pedicel 1.5-3 cm. Sepals ca. 9 × 7 mm, caducous after anthesis, both surfaces glabrous; sepals of outer whorl inwardly concave to navicular; sepals of inner whorl obovate, nearly flat. Petals at first white then red, obovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 cm, outside densely shortly tomentose from base to middle, inside with trichomes throughout. Stamens ca. 35; filaments 2.5-3 cm; anthers 3-4 mm. Gynophore 3-5 cm; ovary nearly globose, 2-2.5 × 1.5-2 mm, apex with an extremely short beak; placentae 4, each with a few ovules. Fruit dark tan-colored when dry, nearly globose, 5.5-6 × ca. 5 cm, with dense thin verrucose raised areas; pericarp pale red, ca. 2 mm thick; fruiting pedicel thickened, ca. 3 mm in diam., woody; fruiting gynophore thickened to ca. 3 mm in diam., woody. Seeds 20-30 per fruit, ca. 2 × 2 × 1.3 cm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Oct.

● Valleys, wet areas, thickets or forests; 400-1300 m. SE Yunnan.

Jacobs (Blumea 12: 540. 1965) thought this may be a synonym of Capparis versicolor, but it has larger leaves and other differences (summarized in the key).