Artabotrys esquirolii H. Léveillé; Holboellia brevipes (Hemsley) P. C. Kuo; H. coriacea var. angustifolia Pampanini; Stauntonia brevipes Hemsley.

Evergreen. Stems brown. Leaf blade pinnately 3-foliolate; petiolules 0.5--3 cm; leaflets elliptic to ovate-elliptic, rarely lanceolate to oblong, terminal one sometimes obovate, (2--)6--10 × (1--)4--5(--8) cm, thick leathery, abaxially farinaceous green, adaxially dark green and shiny, base rounded to cuneate, margin slightly narrowly revolute, apex acuminate to emarginate and cuspidate; primary veins 3 from base; secondary veins 4 pairs; tertiary veinlets prominent on both surfaces when young, adaxially slightly impressed or inconspicuous when old. Racemes fascicled, short corymbiform; bracts persistent, scaly; peduncle short. Male flowers: pedicel ca. 2 cm. Sepals white, purple striate; outer 3 sepals oblong, ca. 10 × 4 mm; inner 3 sepals narrower, apex obtuse. Petals suborbicular, less than 1 mm in diam. Stamens 6--7.5 mm; connective apical appendage very short, apiculate. Pistillodes subulate, ca. 1.5 mm. Female flowers: pedicel 3.5--5 cm, slightly thick. Sepals reddish purple; outer 3 sepals ovate, 12--14 × 9--10 mm; inner 3 sepals elliptic to lanceolate. Petals 6, minute. Staminodes 6, smaller than petals, sessile. Carpels ovoid-clavate, ca. 9 mm. Fruit purple at maturity, blackish when dry, oblong-terete, 5--6 × ca. 3 cm, densely verruculose. Seeds ellipsoid, slightly compressed, ca. 8 × 5--6 mm; seed coat black, shiny. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Jun--Aug.

The fruits are edible, and the roots and stems are used medicinally.

* Mixed forests, mountain slopes, among shrubs, trailsides; 500--2000 m. Anhui, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang.