台湾鼠李 tai wan shu li

Shrubs ± scandent, dioecious, to 10 m tall, unarmed. Branchlets brown, with numerous tuberculate lenticels, puberulent. Petiole 0.8-2 mm, densely yellow-brown puberulent; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially yellow-green, shiny, oblong or oblong-elliptic, 5-13 × 2-6 cm, papery, abaxially sparsely puberulent on veins and vein axils, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, prominent abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, base subrounded, margin obtusely serrate, apex acuminate. Flowers unisexual, 5-merous, 2-6 in axillary, bracteate, cymose racemes; bracts leaflike, ovate, to 5 cm. Pedicels 1-2 mm, puberulent. Sepals lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, adaxially medially keeled, apex acute. Petals spatulate-emarginate, ca. 1 mm. Disk thin, lining calyx tube. Male flowers with very small stamens. Female flowers: ovary globose, 3-loculed; style ca. 1.5 × as long as ovary, 3-fid or cleft to half. Drupe dark red, turning black at maturity, globose or obovoid-globose, 3-4 mm in diam., with persistent calyx tube at base, with 3 stones; fruiting pedicel 3-4 mm. Seeds oblong-ovoid, abaxially with margined furrow extending over 1/2 of length. Fl. Oct, fr. Nov-Dec.

● Broad-leaved forests, thickets; below 1000 m. Taiwan (Taibei, Taizhong).