盾柱 dun zhu

Celastrus oppositus Wallich in Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 393. 1824.

Trees, to 15 m tall, sometimes shrubs; branchlets subterete or obscurely 4-angled. Petiole short, 2-5 mm; leaf blade ovate to obovate-oblong, rarely suborbicular, 3-8 × 1.5-5.2 cm, papery, base cuneate, margin entire, sometimes slightly recurved, apex obtuse, acute, rarely acuminate, very rarely retuse; veins 5 or 6 pairs, thin and obvious. Cymes of 1 or 2 branches, few flowered; peduncle very short, 2-3 mm; pedicel 1-2 mm. Flowers green; calyx lobes rounded or subreniform, ca. 0.5 × 0.75-1 mm; petals elliptic or broadly ovate, 1.25-1.5 × ca. 1 mm, reflexed at anthesis, obtuse or slightly acute. Disk margin slightly crenate. Stamens attached just abaxially on disk margin; filament subulate, fleshy, slightly flattened; anther slightly ovoid. Ovary adnate to disk at base; style very short; stigma capitate. Nut ellipsoid or sometimes slightly obovoid, 5-7 × 4-5 mm. Seed sustained by persistent floral parts. Fl. May-Dec, fr. Jul-Jan.

Lower primary and secondary light rain forests; near sea level to 700 m. Hainan [S India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia (Queensland), Pacific islands (New Caledonia)].