滇簕茜 dian le qian

Randia forrestii J. Anthony, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 18: 204. 1934.

Shrubs or trees, 2-5 m tall; branches hirtellous or pilosulous to glabrescent, compressed to angled or subterete, with thorns 3-10 mm. Petiole 2.5-10 mm, hirtellous or pilosulous to glabrous; leaf blade drying papery to stiffly papery, brownish green, oblong-ovate, elliptic-lanceolate, or ovate, 3.5-7 × 1.5-5 cm, adaxially glabrous and shiny, abaxially glabrous or sparsely strigillose on principal veins, base cuneate to obtuse or subrounded, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 4-6 pairs, in abaxial axils with foveolate and/or pilosulous domatia; stipules lanceolate to triangular, 2-5 mm, strigillose to glabrous, acuminate. Inflorescences cymose, 2.5-3 × 3-4 cm, 5- to several flowered, branched to several orders, pilosulous or hirtellous to glabrous; peduncle 4-10 mm; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate or triangular, 2-4 mm, acute; pedicels 1-3 mm. Calyx puberulent or strigillose to glabrous; ovary portion obconic, ca. 1 mm; limb 2-3 mm, partially lobed; lobes triangular, 1-1.5 mm, acute. Corolla white to greenish white or perhaps yellow, glabrous outside; tube 5-6 mm; lobes spatulate, ca. 5 mm, obtuse. Fruiting pedicels ca. 6 mm. Berry globose, 5-8 mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. May-Dec.

● Forests or thickets at streamsides, on hills, or on mountain slopes; 1000-2400 m. Yunnan.

Ridsdale (loc. cit.: 298-299) treated Benkara griffithii and B. forrestii as two different species, without commentary or a key, and synonymized Randia hainanensis under B. forrestii. W. C. Chen (in FRPS 71(1): 346. 1999) treated these names as synonyms of Oxyceros griffithii. However, B. forrestii and R. hainanensis were recognized as separate species by Tirvengadum (in herb.), and these appear morphologically distinct as outlined in the key to species above and thus are separated here. These are provisionally treated as endemic pending further study of this genus and specimens from surrounding countries.