六月雪 liu yue xue

Lycium japonicum Thunberg, Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 3: 207. 1780; L. foetidum Linnaeus f.; Serissa foetida (Linnaeus f.) Lamarck.

Small shrubs, 60-90 cm tall, presumably evergreen; branches weakly flattened to terete, puberulent to villosulous or hirtellous in interpetiolar lines to sometimes uniformly puberulent throughout. Leaves subsessile or with petiole to 2 mm, glabrous or puberulent to villosulous; blade drying leathery to stiffly papery, ovate to oblanceolate, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or lanceolate, 0.6-2.2 × 0.3-0.6 cm, both surfaces glabrous to hispidulous or villosulous on principal veins to throughout, often shiny adaxially, base obtuse to acute, apex acute to obtuse or acuminate; secondary veins 2-4 pairs; stipules 0.5-2 mm, puberulent to villosulous, truncate to triangular, with bristles 0.5-4 mm. Flowers solitary to several; bracts narrowly triangular to spatulate, 1-6 mm, glabrous to villosulous, acute, margins entire to ciliate or hispidulous. Calyx glabrous to puberulent or hirtellous; ovary portion obconic, 1-1.5 mm; limb lobed essentially to base; lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate or linear, 1-5 mm, entire to ciliolate or hispid. Corolla outside glabrous to puberulent or villosulous; tube 4-8 mm; lobes narrowly triangular to ovate, 2-2.5 mm. Drupes 2-3 mm; pyrenes 2-2.5 mm. Fl. Apr-Oct, fr. Jun-Nov.

● Streamsides or broad-leaved forests on hills; 100-1600 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [widely cultivated elsewhere].

The Fl. Taiwan (ed. 2, 4: 324-325. 1998) treated one species of Serissa, which was called S. serissoides but which keys out to S. japonica in the classification of W. C. Ko (in FRPS 71(2): 160. 1999); that report is accordingly listed here based on this re-identification.