Rhamnus cavaleriei H. Léveillé (5 Dec 1911), not H. Léveillé (10 May 1911); R. leveilleana Fedde.

Shrubs or small trees, dioecious, to 3 m tall, spinose. Branches alternate or subopposite, terminating in a spine; young branches greenish pilose; old branches gray-brown or black-brown, glabrous, longitudinally fissured. Leaves alternate or fascicled on short shoots; stipules linear-lanceolate, puberulent, equaling petiole or slightly longer, persistent; petiole 2-4 mm, pilose; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, shiny, spatulate, rhombic-elliptic, or obovate-elliptic, 1-2.5 × 0.5-1.2 cm, leathery or thinly leathery, abaxially often with bearded domatia in axils of primary and lateral veins, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 2-4 pairs, rather inconspicuous on both sides, base cuneate, rarely subrounded, margin crenate or obtusely serrate, slightly revolute, apex truncate or rounded, rarely acute. Flowers unisexual, 4-merous, glabrous. Pedicels 2-3 mm. Petals present. Female flowers few fascicled on short shoots or in leaf axils of annual branches; rudimentary stamens quite small; styles apically 2-cleft. Drupe black at maturity, globose, 3-5 mm in diam., with 2 stones, with persistent calyx tube at base; fruiting pedicel 2-4 mm, glabrous. Seeds red-brown, shiny, obovoid-globose, abaxially with margined furrow for 4/5 of length. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Sep.

● Forests at riversides, thickets, sunny slopes; 600-2600 m. Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.