刺藤子 ci teng zi

Shrubs evergreen, scandent, spinescent. Branchlets terete, brown-yellow puberulent. Leaves generally opposite; petiole 4-8 mm, strongly canaliculate, puberulent or glabrous; leaf blade abaxially shiny, green, brown when dry, ovate-elliptic, rarely ovate, 5-10 × 2-3.5 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 5-7(or 8) pairs, curved near margins, conspicuously impressed abaxially, raised adaxially, base subrounded, slightly asymmetrical, margin minutely serrulate, apex acuminate, rarely acute. Flowers white, sessile, glabrous, solitary or few fascicled in terminal or rarely axillary spikes or paniculate spikes; rachis 4-17 cm, yellow or yellow-white puberulent or tomentulose; bracts lanceolate or fibrous, 2-4 mm. Sepals triangular, cuspidate. Petals narrowly obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as sepals. Anthers acute. Ovary 2- or 3-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule; style short, 2- or 3-lobed. Drupe reddish. Fl. Nov-Sep, fr. Apr-May of following year.

● Forests, forest margins; below 1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, SE Yunnan (Xichou), Zhejiang.