海南叶下珠 hai nan ye xia zhu

Shrubs to 2 m tall, erect, monoecious, glabrous throughout; stem gray-brown; branchlets angular, 10-25 cm. Stipules linear-lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm, hard when dry; petiole very short; leaf blade nearly oblong, 10-25 × 4-8 mm, membranous, abaxially greenish or glaucous-green, adaxially green, base obliquely broadly cuneate, margin slightly revolute, apex acute, apiculate; midrib purple, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs. Male inflorescences along middle to lower axils of branchlets, usually 2- or 3-flowered. Male flowers: pedicels 3-10 mm; sepals 4, red, ovate-elliptic, ca. 1.2 × 1 mm, midrib slightly thicker abaxially, margin lacerate, apex acuminate; disk glands 4, patelliform; stamens 2; filaments connate at base; anthers free, transversely dehiscent. Female flowers: pedicels 20-35 mm; sepals 5, red, lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm, nearly equal, midrib slightly thicker abaxially, margin membranous, deeply lacerate; disk glands 6, ± square, ca. 0.5 × 0.5 mm, margin entire or obscurely undulate; ovary subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam., 3-celled; styles 3, free, bifid nearly to base, horizontal. Fruiting sepals persistent; capsules oblong-ovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm. Seeds small, ca. 2 × 0.8 mm, reddish. Fl. and fr. almost throughout year.

● Scrub, open forests; 200-400 m. S Hainan.