乌苏里鼠李 wu su li shu li

Rhamnus cathartica Linnaeus var. dahurica Maximowicz; R. cathartica var. intermedia Maximowicz.

Shrubs spinose, dioecious, to 5 m tall, glabrous or subglabrous. Branchlets opposite or subopposite, slightly virgate, gray-brown, smooth, often terminating in a spine; axillary and terminal buds ovoid, with few scales, 3-4 mm. Leaves opposite or subopposite, or fascicled on short shoots; stipules lanceolate, caducous; petiole 1-2.5 cm; leaf blade shiny, narrowly elliptic or narrowly oblong, rarely lanceolate-elliptic or elliptic, 3-10.5 × 1.5-3.5 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous or hairy only on midvein, lateral veins 4 or 5(or 6) pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base cuneate or rounded, slightly oblique, margin obtusely serrate or crenate-serrate, with glandular teeth, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Flowers unisexual, 4-merous. Pedicels 6-10 mm. Petals present. Female flowers few- to 20-fascicled in leaf axils of long shoots or on short shoots; sepals ovate-lanceolate, 3-4 × as long as calyx tube, with rudimentary stamens; style 2-fid or cleft to half. Drupe black, globose or obovoid-globose, 5-6 mm in diam., with 2 stones, with persistent calyx tube at base; fruiting pedicel 6-10 mm. Seeds black-brown, ovoid, abaxially-laterally with short margined furrow slit at upper part. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jun-Oct.

Mountain forests, thickets on slopes, riverbanks; below 1600 m. Heilongjiang, N Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, E Shandong (Kunyu Shan) [Japan, N Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East, W Siberia)].

This species is quite similar to Rhamnus davurica, but the latter differs in having broader elliptic or ovate leaves and terminal buds not changed into a spine.