九子母 jiu zi mu

Shrubs, 1-3 m tall; branchlets minutely pubescent. Leaves opposite; petiole 0.5-1.4 cm, minutely pubescent; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate, 7.5-11(-17.5) × 2.3-3.5(-5) cm, papery, sparsely puberulent or glabrescent on both surfaces, base rounded to cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence paniculate, terminal, ca. 18 cm, minutely pubescent. Male flowers subtended by linear bracteole; calyx campanulate, 4-lobed; petals 4, clawed; stamens 8, ones opposite to sepals longer; pistillode present. Female flowers subtended by linear bract; calyx, petals, and staminodes lacking; disk annular; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., style longer than ovary, recurved. Fruit pedicel adnate to accrescent floral subtending bract, bract membranous, grayish white, suborbicular, 1-1.3 cm in diam., margin serrulate and ciliate, apex retuse to emarginate, mucronate, reticulately veined; fruit slightly compressed, 2-2.5 mm in diam.

Hill forests; 1300-1400 m. SE Xizang (Mêdog), NW Yunnan (Gongshan) [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal].