小南蛇藤 xiao nan she teng

Celastrus articulatus Thunberg var. cuneatus Rehder & E. H. Wilson in Sargent, Pl. Wilson. 2: 350. 1915; C. orbiculatus Thunberg var. cuneatus (Rehder & E. H. Wilson) Wuzhi; C. orbiculatus f. microphyllus Loesener.

Tenuous twining shrubs; branchlets purplish brown, with sparse longitudinal-elliptic lenticels; annotinal branchlets setulose; axillary buds approximately globose, 1-2 mm wide. Petiole 1-5 mm; leaf blade broadly obovate or rarely approximately orbicular, 1.5-4.5 × 1.5-4 cm, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex widely rounded to approximately truncate, mucronate; secondary veins 2-5 pairs. Cymes axillary, 1-4-flowered, rarely terminal; rachis slender, 4-6.5 mm; pedicels 2-3 mm, jointed at or below middle. Male flowers: sepals triangular or triangular-elliptic, ca. 1.5 × 2 mm, broadest above middle part; disk cupuliform, lobe approximately curved or truncate; stamens shorter than petals; filament ca. 2.5 mm; anther approximately globular; pistillodes small, long triangular. Female flowers: perianths similar to male flowers; disk slightly longer than male flowers, lobe obvious; staminodes small, ca. 1.5 mm; pistils ampullaceous; ovary globose; styles ca. 1 mm; stigma sticklike, deeply 3-lobed, extrorse, apex flat and enlarged. Capsule globose, 6-7 mm wide. Seeds elliptic, 3.5-4 mm, slightly convex. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-later.

● Slopes, thickets along roadsides; near sea level to 600 m. Hubei, E Sichuan.