勐海山柑 meng hai shan gan

Vines, woody. Twigs reddish brown when dry, almost terete, stout, glabrous, pith reddish brown and often with translucent areas. Stipular spines 1-3 mm, recurved, sometimes absent. Petiole nearly terete, 1-1.2 cm, 2-2.5 mm in diam.; leaf blade elliptic, 13-19 × 8-11 cm, thickly leathery, dark red when fresh, slightly shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 5-8 on each side of midvein and slightly raised on both surfaces, reticulate veins visible on both surfaces, areoles loose, base cordate and slightly asymmetric, apex rounded, shortly mucronate, and often reflexed or inwardly concave. Inflorescences axillary short racemes or corymbs or axillary and at twig apex thus forming a panicle; peduncle 4-7.5 cm, glabrous; rachis short, rust-colored tomentose. Pedicel 2-3 cm, stout, trichomes like those on rachis. Sepals ca. 1.8 cm; sepals of outer whorl concave to hemispheric, thickly leathery, outside densely and shortly red tomentose, inside pink and with trichomes; sepals of inner whorl broadly elliptic, almost flat, thinner, with reddish brown trichomes. Petals membranous, ± equal, both surfaces glabrous. Stamens ca. 110; filaments 1-1.2 cm; anthers ca. 4 mm. Ovary ovoid, ca. 3 mm, 1-loculed, glabrous; placentae (3 or)4; ovules many. Fruit often almost dark red, ellipsoid, 9-13 × 5-7.5 cm, smooth or slightly roughened, apex with a very short thick tip; pericarp pink, 6-10 mm thick; fruiting pedicel markedly thickened, glabrous; fruiting gynophore 4-5 cm, 4-10 mm in diam., woody, glabrous. Seeds many per fruit, dark red, ca. 2 × 1.2 cm, smooth. Fl. Jun, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Riversides, secondary forests; 400-1000 m. S Yunnan.

Jacobs (Blumea 12: 540. 1965), based on examination of an isotype, believed this to be Capparis sikkimensis subsp. yunnanensis (treated here as C. yunnanensis).