窄叶柃 zhai ye ling

Shrubs 0.5-2 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, glabrous; current year branchlets yellowish green, 2-ribbed, glabrous or pubescent; terminal buds glabrous or pubescent. Petiole 1-4 mm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 3-6(-11) × 1-1.5 cm, leathery to thinly leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, abaxially slightly raised, and adaxially obscure or slightly impressed, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin obtusely serrate, apex acute, shortly acuminate, or caudate-acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster. Pedicel 3-4 mm, glabrous or pubescent. Male flowers: bracteoles orbicular, ca. 0.5 mm, glabrous or pubescent, apex rounded and mucronate; sepals suborbicular, ca. 3 mm, glabrous, apex rounded; petals obovate, 5-6 mm; stamens 14-16; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles similar to those of male flowers; sepals ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous; petals ovate, ca. 5 mm; ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 2.5 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit long ovoid, 5-6 × 3-4 mm. Fl. Oct-Feb, fr. Jul-Sep.

Thickets on mountain slopes or in valleys; 200-1500 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, SW and W Guizhou, W Hubei, S Sichuan [N Vietnam].