海南美登木 hai nan mei deng mu

Gymnosporia hainanensis Merrill & Chun, Sunyatsenia 2: 267. 1935.

Shrubs, inclined, or vinelike with age, old branches thorny, thorns sturdy, decurved, hooked. Petiole sturdy, longer than ca. 1 mm; leaf blade oblong-obovate, 10-16 × 4-9 cm, leathery, base narrowly cuneate, margin nearly entire or repand-serrate, apex shortly acuminate. Flowers not seen. Fructiferous cymes fascicled, 2 or 3 × branched; peduncle nearly absent, branches sturdy, ca. 1 cm; pedicel stout, ca. 1 × 1.5 mm. Capsule triangular-globose, ca. 1.5 × 1.8 cm, 3-valved, valves rigid and thick, obviously reticulate. Seeds obovate, ca. 5 mm, red-brown, covered by orange aril at base. Fr. May.

● Sparse forests. Hainan.