细枝柃 xi zhi ling

Shrubs or trees, 2-10 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, glabrous or subglabrous; current year branchlets yellowish green, terete, slender, puberulent; terminal buds puberulent and pubescent. Petiole 2-4 mm, puberulent; leaf blade oblong-elliptic, oblong-lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, ovate, ovate-elliptic, or elliptic, (2-)4-9 × 1.5-2.5 cm, thinly leathery to papery, abaxially pale green, sparsely puberulent to puberulent only along midvein, and purplish red when dry, adaxially dark green to yellowish green, glabrous, and sometimes golden yellow glandular, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins (8-)10-20 on each side of midvein, slender, and visible on both surfaces, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex long acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 4 in a cluster. Pedicel 2-3 mm, puberulent. Male flowers: bracteoles ovate, ca. 1 mm; sepals ovate to suborbicular, ca. 3 mm, outside puberulent to subglabrous, inside sericeous; petals obovate, 5-6 mm; stamens 10-15; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous or sparsely pubescent, 3-loculed. Female flowers: bracteoles, sepals, and petals similar to those of male flowers; style (1-)2-3 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit black when mature, globose, 3-4 mm in diam. Seeds blackish brown, reniform, shiny. Fl. Oct-Dec, fr. Jul-Sep.

● Forests or thickets on mountain slopes or in valleys; 400-2000 m. S Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, W Hubei, S and SW Hunan, Jiangxi, S Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Yunnan, S Zhejiang.