黑柃 hei ling

Shrubs or trees, 2-7 m tall. Bark blackish brown, smooth. Young branches grayish brown to brown; current year branchlets pale reddish brown, stout, terete, glabrous; terminal buds glabrous. Petiole 3-4 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to elliptic, 6-14 × 2-4.5 cm, leathery, abaxially reddish brown when dry, adaxially yellowish green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially slightly raised and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 12-14 on each side of midvein, slender, and visible on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin subentire to apically serrulate, apex shortly acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 4 in a cluster. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles suborbicular, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; sepals orbicular, ca. 3 mm, leathery, glabrous, apex rounded and retuse with a mucronate tip; petals oblong-obovate, 4-5 mm; stamens 17-24; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles similar to those of male flowers; sepals ovate to ovate-orbicular, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous; petals obovate-lanceolate, ca. 4 mm; ovary ovoid, glabrous, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, 1.5-2 mm. Fruit purplish black when mature, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam. Seeds dark brown, reniform, shiny. Fl. Nov-Jan, fr. Jun-Aug.

● Forests on mountain slopes or in valleys; 200-1000 m. N Fujian, Guangdong, E and S Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, E and S Jiangxi.