短刺虎刺 duan ci hu ci

Damnacanthus indicus C. F. Gaertner var. giganteus Makino, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 18: 33. 1904; D. macrophyllus Siebold ex Miquel f. giganteus (Makino) T. Yamazaki; D. macrophyllus var. giganteus (Makino) Koidzumi; D. subspinosus Handel-Mazzetti.

Shrubs or rarely small trees, 0.5-2(-7.5) m tall. Roots moniliform. Branches usually 4-angulate or terete to flattened, dark green and sparsely hispidulous or puberulent to glabrous when young, becoming grayish yellow and glabrous, with few spines 1-2 mm and deciduous or sometimes persistent. Petiole of developed leaves 2-5 mm, sparsely puberulent to glabrous; leaf blade drying leathery, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 4-14(-15) × 2-3(-5) cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially glabrous or rarely densely puberulent along veins, base obtuse to rounded, margins flat to usually revolute and/or sometimes crisped, apex acuminate or acute; midrib flat to impressed adaxially; secondary veins 5-7 pairs; stipules caducous, interpetiolar, 1-2 mm, puberulent to glabrous, acute to bifid, thickened. Inflorescences strigillose to glabrescent. Pedicels 1-2 mm. Calyx strigillose to puberulent; hypanthium portion turbinate, 1.2-1.5 mm; limb 1-1.5 mm, lobed for 1/4-1/2; teeth broadly triangular. Corolla white, glabrous outside; tube 13-16 mm; lobes ovate-triangular, ca. 2 mm. Drupes ca. 4 × 5-8 mm, with pedicels sometimes elongated to 3 mm. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Oct-Jan.

Sparse or dense forests or thickets; 500-1100 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan].

Naiki and Nagamasu (Amer. J. Bot. 91: 664-671. 2004) reported the breeding biology of this species as monomorphic with "pin" type flowers (i.e., with stigmas exserted and anthers included).