红叶下珠 hong ye xia zhu

Nymphanthus ruber Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 2: 544. 1790 ["rubra"]; Phyllanthus ruber (Loureiro) Sprengel (1826), not Noroña (1790).

Shrubs or treelets, 1-3(-6) m tall, monoecious; stem brown-reddish, usually branching at apex; branchlets 10-20 cm, with anchor-shaped hairs. Stipules triangular, ca. 2 mm, brown-reddish; petiole 2-3 mm, with anchor-shaped hairs; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-7.5 × 1-3.5 cm, papery, glabrous except for pubescent base of midrib, base broadly cuneate or obtuse, sometimes oblique, margin revolute when dry, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate; lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs. Plants monoecious. Inflorescence an axillary fascicle, male usually 2-6-flowered along proximal part of branchlets. Male flowers: pedicels filamentous, 3-6 mm; sepals 4, elliptic or ovate, subequal, 2-2.5 × ca. 1.2 mm, yellow-green, adaxially keeled; disk glands 4, spherical; stamens 2; filaments connate into column; anthers connivent, divergent at base, longitudinally dehiscent. Female flowers ca. 4 mm; pedicels 18-25 mm, thicker at apex; sepals 6, as in male, persistent in fruit; disk cup-shaped, thickened, crenate at apex, base with 6 triangular glands, alternating with sepals; ovary globose, ca. 2.5 mm, 4-6-celled; styles 4-6, free, erect, 1-1.5 mm, bifid at apex. Capsules globose, ca. 6 mm in diam., reddish brown, with 4-6 longitudinal grooves. Seeds yellowish brown, ca. 2 × 1 mm. Fl. Apr-Oct, fr. Jul-Apr.

Open montane forests, valley scrub; 200-600 m. S Hainan [Vietnam].