黔桂冬青 qian gui dong qing

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, ca. 8 m tall. Current year’s branchlets slender, longitudinally deeply sulcate, sparsely puberulent; second year’s branchlets subquadrangular, ridged; third year’s branchlets longitudinally plicate-rugose, minutely fissured, leaf scars slightly raised, subcrescent-shaped; terminal buds small, scales narrow, apically acute. Stipules persistent, callous, narrowly deltoid, apically acute; petiole 5-8 mm, abaxially rugose and glabrous, adaxially narrowly and deeply sulcate, puberulent; leaf blade brown-olivaceous, shiny when dry, lanceolate, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or narrowly oblong-elliptic, 5-8 × 1.5-3 cm, papery, midvein raised and glabrous abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 9-11 pairs, raised abaxially, evident adaxially, reticulate veins evident abaxially, base cuneate or acute, rarely obtuse, margin entire or apically few serrate, apex long acuminate. Male flowers not known. Female inflorescences: cymes of order 1-3, 1-5-flowered, fasciculate or pseudopaniculate, axillary, puberulent, sessile; rachis 3-12 mm; basal bracts persistent, broadly deltoid, apex acute; peduncles 3-7 mm; pedicels 3-5 mm, bracteoles 2, basal; 1-flowered pedicels ca. 5 mm, bracteoles 2, submedian; flowers 6- or 7-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply lobed, lobes ovate-deltoid, margin erose, not ciliate, apex acute; corolla rotate, 4-5 mm in diam., petals oblong, 1.5-2 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., stigma thickly discoid. Fruit red, castaneous or black when dry, ovoid-subglobose, ca. 4 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, 2.5-3 mm in diam.; persistent style sometimes evident; persistent stigma thickly discoid; pyrenes 6, ellipsoidal, ca. 3 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., abaxially rugose, 3-striate, not sulcate, laterally smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Nov.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, mountains; 500-800 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou (Dushan), Hunan [Vietnam].