半持柃 ban chi ling

Shrubs or trees, 2-10 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, glabrous; current year branchlets terete, yellowish brown pubescent; terminate buds yellowish brown pubescent. Petiole 2-3 mm, pubescent; leaf blade oblong to oblong-oblanceolate, 4-7.5 × 1.2-2.3 cm, leathery to thinly leathery, abaxially yellowish green and pubescent along midvein, adaxially dark green, shiny, and glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, secondary and reticulate veins abaxially slightly raised and adaxially impressed, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin entire on basal 1/2 and serrulate on apical 1/2, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles suborbicular, ca. 1 mm; sepals suborbicular, 1.5-2 mm, membranous, outside glabrous, margin ciliolate, apex rounded; petals oblong to ovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm; stamens 10-16; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles similar to those of male flowers but slightly smaller; sepals 1-1.5 mm; petals ovate, ca. 2.5 mm; ovary globose, glabrous; style ca. 0.5 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit bluish black when mature, globose, 3-4 mm in diam. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Jun-Jul.

● Forests on mountain slopes, thickets at forest margins; 600-2600 m. NE Guangxi, Guizhou, S Hunan, W Jiangxi, SE and SW Sichuan, NE Yunnan.