垂枝水锦树 chui zhi shui jin shu

Rondeletia pendula Wallich in Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 140. 1824.

Shrubs, often straggly, 1-3 m tall; branches pendulous, terete, hispidulous or puberulent to glabrescent. Leaves opposite or ternate, subsessile; blade drying papery, ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 3.5-10 × 1.8-4 cm, adaxially glabrous to sparsely hispidulous, abaxially sparsely to moderately scaberulous or hispidulous with pubescence denser on principal veins, base rounded to cuneate, apex acute to weakly acuminate; secondary veins 4-7 pairs; stipules caducous to persistent, triangular, 1.5-2 mm, glabrescent, apex erect, cuspidate. Inflorescences paniculate, pyramidal in outline, 10-15 × 4-9 cm, branched to 2 or 3 orders, densely hispidulous to puberulent, sessile and tripartite or pedunculate; peduncle 2-4.5 cm; bracts triangular to ovate, 0.5-1 mm; pedicels 0.5-1.2 mm. Flowers shortly pedicellate. Calyx puberulent to glabrous; hypanthium ellipsoid to subglobose, 1-1.5 mm; limb lobed nearly to base; lobes lanceolate or triangular, 0.5-0.8 mm. Corolla red, tubular-funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 4-5 mm, inside pubescent in upper part; lobes oblong to elliptic, ca. 2 mm. Anthers linear-oblong, 1.3-1.5 mm, partially exserted. Stigmas clavate, ca. 1.3 mm. Capsules subglobose, 1.5-2 mm in diam., glabrous or pilose. Fl. and fr. Dec-Feb of following year.

Forests or thickets in ravines; 600-1300 m. Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal].

W. C. Chen (in FRPS 71(1): 221. 1999) described the stipules as caducous, but these are persistent on all the specimens studied.