紫珠叶巴戟 zi zhu ye ba ji

Lianas or subshrubs; branches at base with persistent leafless stipules, when young densely golden hirtellous, becoming sparsely pubescent or subglabrous, terete or angled, brown or purplish black. Leaves opposite; petiole 7-10 mm, densely golden hirtellous; blade drying papery, adaxially brownish black, abaxially brown, obovate-oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or elliptic, 7-14 × 2.5-4 cm, adaxially sparsely hirtellous or hispidulous, abaxially sparsely hispidulous or hirtellous, or glabrous, on both surfaces pubescence denser along midrib, base cuneate to acute, apex acuminate, long acuminate, or obtuse then abruptly mucronate; secondary veins 5-7 pairs, with pilosulous domatia; stipules fused into a tube, 3-4 mm, densely golden hispidulous or -hirtellous, subtruncate, on each side with 1 or 2 bristles. Inflorescence terminal; peduncles 4-7, umbellate or fasciculate, 6-15 mm, densely hirtellous, as a group often subtended by 1 subulate bract; heads 1 per peduncle, 2-8-flowered. Flowers fused at base, biology not noted. Calyx puberulent; limb reduced, truncate or sometimes with 1 subulate tooth. Corolla white, tubular; tube ca. 2.5 mm, densely villous inside; lobes 4, lanceolate. Drupecetum globose, 4-8 mm in diam. Drupes fused. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. winter.

● Forests on mountains, thickets at roadsides, ditch sides, hill slopes. Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.