九龙瑞香 jiu long rui xiang

Shrubs evergreen, small. Branches brownish or purplish brown, stout, shortly pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 1-2 mm, broadly winged; leaf blade lustrous dark green adaxially, paler abaxially, elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 2-5 × 0.8-1.5 cm, papery or thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, base narrowly cuneate, margin sometimes revolute, apex obtuse, apiculate or retuse; veins 5 or 6 pairs. Inflorescences terminal, capitate, 2-8-flowered; bracts caducous, lanceolate, ca. 8 mm, mostly glabrous, margin and apex tomentose. Pedicel 1-2 mm, densely brown tomentose. Calyx white (or pink); tube narrowly cylindric, 10-11 mm, exterior brownish pubescent; lobes 4, broadly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 mm, apex acute. Stamens 8, lower whorl inserted at middle of calyx tube, upper whorl in throat; filaments short; anthers linear-oblong, ca. 1 mm. Disk annular, 3-lobed; lobes ± square, irregularly 1- or 2-fid. Ovary ellipsoid, ca. 3 mm, glabrous; style ca. 1.5 mm; stigma capitate, tiny. Drupe red, ovoid, ca. 8 mm. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Forests, among boulders; 2700-3000 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.