西藏九节 xi zang jiu jie

Shrubs, 0.4-1 m tall; stems glabrous. Petiole 0.5-5 cm, glabrous to puberulent; leaf blade drying papery to stiffly papery, dark green, greenish brown, or reddish brown, elliptic, broadly elliptic, or obovate, 7-17 × 2-8 cm, glabrous adaxially, glabrous to densely puberulent abaxially, base acute to cuneate, margins flat, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 9-12 pairs, not forming a submarginal vein, without domatia; stipules caducous, oblong-lanceolate to broadly ovate, interpetiolar, 5-12 mm, puberulent, strigillose, or hirtellous, 2-lobed for 1/4-1/2, lobes triangular to narrowly triangular sometimes with linear tip 2-9 mm, sometimes erose and glandular. Inflorescences terminal or pseudoaxillary, cymose, sessile to pedunculate, puberulent to densely hirtellous with pubescence sometimes in lines; peduncle to 6.5 cm; branched portion corymbiform, 2.5-4.5 × 4-6 cm, with 1 or 2 pairs of developed secondary axes; bracts ligulate, lanceolate, or narrowly triangular, 0.5-3 mm, sometimes 2-lobed, those subtending flowers 1.5-3 mm; pedicels to 1.5 mm. Flowers subsessile to pedicellate in dichasial cymules of 3-11. Calyx glabrous to puberulent; hypanthium portion obconic, 0.8-1.2 mm; limb 0.8-1.2 mm, lobed for 1/4-1/2; lobes triangular to broadly triangular. Corolla white to pale green, tubular to tubular-funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 3.5-4 mm, densely villous in throat; lobes triangular, ca. 2.5 mm, thickened at apex. Drupes red or yellow, ellipsoid to obovoid, 6-8 × 5-6 mm, with pedicels to 5 mm; pyrenes shallowly 3- or 4-ridged. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug, Oct-Nov.

Subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests on mountains; 1000-2400 m. Xizang (Mêdog), Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal].

This species, as represented by Indian specimens and circumscribed here, is quite variable in leaf size and shape, degree of stipule lobing, and inflorescence form (in particular peduncle development).