野皂荚 ye zao jia

Shrubs or small trees, 2-4 m tall. Branches grayish white to light brown; young branchlets puberulent, glabrescent when old. Spines not robust, long needlelike, 1.5-6.5 cm, with few, short branches. Leaves pinnate or bipinnate (pinnae 2-4 pairs), 7-16 cm; petiolules short, ca. 1 mm, puberulent; leaflets 5-12 pairs, obliquely ovate to oblong, 6-24 × 3-10 mm, thinly leath­ery, upper leaflets much smaller than lower ones, abaxially pu­berulent, adaxially glabrous, veins obscure on both surfaces, base oblique, broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex rounded. Flowers polygamous, greenish white, subsessile, fascicled, in spikes or terminal panicles. Inflorescence 5-12 cm, puberulent; bracts 3, lowest lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, upper 2 ovate, ca. 1 mm, pubescent. Male flowers: ca. 5 mm in diam.; receptacle ca. 1.5 mm.; sepals 3 or 4, lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm; petals 3 or 4, ovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm, as calyx lobes puberulent outside, villous inside; stamens 6-8. Bisexual flowers: ca. 4 mm in diam.; calyx lobes 4, triangular-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm, both sides puberulent; petals 4, ovate-oblong, ca. 2 mm, outside puberulent, inside vil­lous; stamens 4, opposite to sepals; ovary long stalked, gla­brous, 1-3-ovuled. Legume reddish brown to deep brown, obliquely elliptic or obliquely oblong, flat, thin, 3-6 × 1-2 cm, glabrous, with slender beak at apex; stipe 1-2 cm. Seeds 1-3, brownish, compressed, ovoid or oblong, 7-10 × 6-7 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Oct.

● Sunny slopes, roadsides; 100-1300 m. Anhui, ?Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi.