巧茶 qiao cha

Celastrus edulis Vahl, Symb. Bot. 1: 21. 1790.

Evergreen shrubs, 1-5 m tall; young branches with white, fine lenticels. Petiole 3-8 mm; leaf blade elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 4-7 × 2-4 cm, leathery, base narrowly attenuate, slightly decurrent, margin obtusely serrate, apex obtusely shortly acuminate. Cymes single, small, 1.5-2 × as wide; peduncle 5-10 mm, 2-4-branched, branches short, less than 3 mm; pedicel 1-3 mm, up to 5 mm in fruit. Flowers 3-5 mm in diam.; sepals 5, triangular-ovate, ca. 1 mm; petals 5, white, narrowly ovate or narrowly oblong. Stamens 5, filamentous, shorter than corolla. Ovary free, surrounded by disk; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule orange-red, cylindric, ca. 8 × 3-4 mm, dehiscing from above, loculicidally in 3 valves, usually only 1 seed maturing per valve. Seeds black-brown, narrowly ovoid, 3-4 mm, with membranous basal wing.

Cultivated. Guangxi (Nanning), Hainan (Xinglong), S Yunnan (Xishuangbanna) [native to E African mountains].

The name Catha edulis was not validly published by Forsskål (Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. cvii, 63. 1775); see Art. 46, Ex. 22 of the Vienna Code.