永瓣藤 yong ban teng

Vinelike shrubs, 1.5-6 m tall; young branches slightly 4-angled, base usually with persistent bud scales, scales usually triangular-ovate, margin entire-ciliate, apex thin and elongate or caudate. Leaves alternate; stipules usually thin and linear, 5-6 mm, persistent; petiole thin, 8-12 mm; leaf blade papery, ovate, narrowly ovate, or elliptic-ovate, 5-9 × 1.5-5 cm, base rounded or widely attenuate, margin finely serrulate, often fimbriate at tip of teeth, apex long acuminate or abruptly acute; lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, slender and thin, usually not evident. Cymes (1 or)2(or 3)-branched; peduncle 2-12 mm; pedicel 3-8 mm, slender and thin; bracts and bractlets narrowly ovate or awl-shaped, margin ciliate, persistent. Flowers 3-4 mm in diam., whitish or light green; sepals 4, slightly lobed, lobes semiorbicular, margin denticulate; petals ovate-rotund or obovate. Style very short or nearly absent; stigma small and round. Capsule deeply 4-lobed, persistent petals enlarging and becoming winglike, 10-12 × up to 3 mm. Seeds black, with thin aril at base. Fl. May-Oct, fr. Jun-Nov.

● Coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests; 400-700 m. S Anhui (Qimen), E Hubei (Tongshan), N Jiangxi (Jingdezhen).

This is a very rare species in China. It is listed at the second grade of Chinese plant protection by Chien (in Fu & Jin, China Pl. Red Data Book, 210-211. 1992). The first fruiting specimen was collected in 1926 from S Anhui, while the first flowering specimen was collected from N Jiangxi in 1959. This species was collected from E Hubei for the first time in 1997.