矮杨梅冬青 ai yang mei dong qing

Trees evergreen, small, ca. 3 m tall. Branchlets gray-brown, terete, longitudinally angular and sulcate, densely puberulent; older branchlets longitudinally fissured, with raised, semicircular leaf scars, glabrescent; terminal buds conical, densely puberulent. Petiole 2-4 mm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially puberulent and shallowly sulcate; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green and opaque, obovate, 1-1.8 × 0.6-1.2 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially glabrous, adaxially glabrous except on midvein, midvein slightly raised abaxially, impressed and puberulent adaxially, lateral veins inconspicuous on both surfaces, reticulate veins obsolete on both surfaces, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, margin recurved, entire, apex cordate, retuse. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; peduncles 2-3 mm; pedicels 0.5-1.5 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal, ovate- deltoid, densely puberulent, ciliate; flowers white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., puberulent, 4(or 5)-lobed, lobes broadly ovate, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 3 mm in diam., petals elliptic, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens ca. 3/4 as long as petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary globose, ca. 0.7 mm in diam., apex flat. Female flowers and fruit not known. Fl. May, fr. unknown.

● Forests on limestone mountains; ca. 1100 m. SE Yunnan (Malipo, Xichou).