云南勾儿茶 yun nan gou er cha

Berchemia pycnantha C. K. Schneider; Microrhamnus mairei H. Léveillé.

Shrubs scandent, 2.5-5 m tall. Branchlets spreading, light to yellow-green; old branches yellow-brown, glabrous. Petioles to 1.5(-2) cm, stout, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, turning yellow when dry, adaxially green, ovate-elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or ovate, 2.5-6 × 1.5-3 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 8-12 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate, apex acute to obtuse, finely mucronate. Flowers yellow, 2- or 3-fascicled in long pedunculate, terminal racemes 2-5 cm. Pedicel 3-4 mm, glabrous. Calyx tube shallowly dish-shaped, glabrous; sepals narrowly triangular, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Petals obovate, apex obtuse. Stamens slightly shorter than petals. Disk thick, fleshy, centrally distinctly convex. Ovary nearly completely immersed in but not fused with disk; style cylindric, stout, undivided; stigma capitate, 2- or 3-lobed. Drupe red when young, turning black at maturity, cylindric, 6-9 mm, 4-5 mm in diam., base with persistent remnants of calyx tube and cup-shaped disk, apex obtuse, never mucronulate; mesocarp thin, sweet; fruiting pedicel 4-5 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Apr-May of following year.

● Forests, thickets, slopes, riverbanks; 1500-3900 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Sichuan, E Xizang, Yunnan.