格药柃 ge yao ling

Shrubs or trees, 2-6 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets yellowish green, terete, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; terminal buds glabrous or pubescent. Petiole 4-5 mm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to elliptic, 5.5-11.5 × 2-4.3 cm, leathery, abaxially pale green to yellowish green, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous or slightly pubescent, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 9-11 on each side of midvein and obscure on both surfaces or abaxially slightly visible, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 5 in a cluster. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles suborbicular, 1-1.5 mm, glabrous; sepals suborbicular, 2-2.5 mm, leathery, outside glabrous, margin ciliolate, apex rounded and retuse with a mucronate tip; petals oblong to oblong-obovate, 4-5 mm; stamens 15-22; anthers multi-locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles and sepals similar to those of male flowers; petals ovate-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm; ovary globose, glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 1.5 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit purplish black when mature, globose, 4-5 mm in diam. Seeds reddish brown, reniform compressed globose, shiny. Fl. Sep-Dec, fr. Jun-Sep.

● Forest or thickets; 300-1300 m. S Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, SE Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangsu, Jiangxi, SE and W Sichuan, S and SE Yunnan, Zhejiang.