元江花椒 yuan jiang hua jiao

Woody climbers. Branchlets with prickles. Leaf rachises, inflorescences, and adaxial surface of petiolules minutely puberulent but other parts glabrous. Leaves 7-15-foliolate; petiolules 2-4 mm; leaflet blades alternate to subopposite, elliptic, ovate, or rarely obovate, 6-10 × 2.5-4 cm, subleathery, oil glands inconspicuous on mature leaflets, midvein adaxially impressed, secondary and tertiary veins ridged on both surfaces, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex shortly caudate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, thyrsiform, to 26 cm. Flowers 4-merous. Perianth in 2 series. Sepals purplish green, broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm. Petals oblong, 3-4 mm. Stamens 4; connective with an oil gland at apex. Infructescences ca. 12 cm wide. Fruit follicles dark brownish black, ca. 6 mm in diam., oil glands inconspicuous, apex beaked. Seeds 5-5.5 mm in diam. Fl. May, fr. Nov.

● Upland thickets and moist secondary forests; 400-600 m. S Yunnan.