细刺五加 xi ci wu jia

Acanthopanax setulosus Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., sér. 2, 8: 249. 1886 ["setulosum"]; A. zhejiangensis X. J. Xue & S. T. Fang; Eleutherococcus pseudosetulosus C. H. Kim & B. Y. Sun; E. zhejiangensis (X. J. Xue & S. T. Fang) H. Ohashi.

Shrubs, to 5 m tall. Branches slender, forming both long and short shoots, with sparse to dense red-brown or dark brown bristles or sparsely so, rarely a single prickle at nodes. Petiole 3-10 cm, slender, with prickles at base; petiolules very short; leaflets 5, obovate or oblong-obovate, 2-5 × 0.8-2 cm, papery, abaxially subglabrous, adaxially with scattered bristles on midvein and veins, secondary veins 3 or 4 pairs, conspicuous, base cuneate, margin serrulate above middle, apex acute. Inflorescence borne in axils of leaves on short shoots, a simple umbel of sometimes 2 or 3 umbels clustered together; peduncles 2-3 cm, densely bristly, then glabrous; pedicels 5-10 mm, slender, glabrous. Calyx with 5 teeth, glabrous. Ovary (4 or)5-carpellate; styles united, forming a column. Fruit black at maturity, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam. Fl. Jul, fr. Sep.

● Scrub fields, forests, roadsides, stream banks; below 800 m in E and 2000 m in W part of range. S Anhui, Gansu, Sichuan, W Zhejiang.

This species is used medicinally.