木姜叶巴戟 mu jiang ye ba ji

Lianas or subshrubs; branches at base surrounded by persistent leafless stipules, when young sparsely puberulent, becoming glabrescent, purplish black. Leaves opposite; petiole 4-6 mm, hirtellous; blade drying membranous or papery, adaxially gray, grayish green, or grayish black, abaxially brownish gray or greenish red, linear, oblong-linear, lanceolate-linear, oblanceolate, or elliptic-oblanceolate, 5-11 × 1.5-2(-3) cm, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pilosulous, abaxially usually glabrous except hirtellous along veins, base cuneate to acute, apex acuminate or acute; secondary veins 4-6; stipules fused into a spathe or tube, ca. 4 mm. Inflorescences terminal; peduncles 3-5, fasciculate or umbellate, ca. 7 mm, puberulent; heads 1 per peduncle, subglobose, 5-7-flowered. Flowers fused at base, biology not noted. Calyx limb reduced, truncate. Corolla yellowish white; tube ca. 2 mm, densely villous inside; lobes 4 or 5, ca. 2 mm. Drupecetum subglobose, 2-8 mm in diam. Drupes almost fully fused. Fl. Jul, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Sparse or dense forests on mountains; 700-1300 m. Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan.