数珠珊瑚 shu zhu shan hu

Plants 30-100 cm tall. Branches spreading, pubescent when young. Leaves rather remote; petiole 1-3.5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 4-12 × 1.5-4 cm, abaxially pubescent along midvein, adaxially glabrous, base attenuate, margin slightly serrulate, apex long acuminate. Racemes 4-10 cm (including peduncle), pubescent. Pedicel slen-der, with a bract and a pair of bracteoles. Tepals white or pink, elliptic or obovate-oblong, 2-2.5 mm, in fruit 3-3.5 mm, green, reflexed. Stamens shorter than and alternate with tepals. Berry globose or pyriform, 3-4 mm. Seeds ca. 2 mm. 2n = 126.

Cultivated, possibly escaped as a weed around houses or rubbish heaps. Fujian (Fuzhou), Guangdong (Guangzhou), Zhejiang (Hangzhou) [probably native to tropical America; now widespread in tropics and subtropics].

This species is cultivated as an ornamental.