流苏子 liu su zi

Thysanospermum diffusum Champion ex Bentham, Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 4: 168. 1852.

Lianas or scandent shrubs, 2-5 m or taller, often much branched; branches densely hirtellous or strigillose to strigose often becoming glabrescent with age. Petiole 2-5 mm, hirsute to strigose or rarely glabrous; leaf blade drying papery to leathery and often yellowish green, ovate or ovate-oblong to lanceolate, 2-9.5 × 0.8-3.5 cm, adaxially rather shiny and glabrous except strigose to hirsute along costa, abaxially glabrous except strigose to hirsute on principal veins, base rounded to obtuse, margins sometimes sparsely ciliate and/or thinly revolute, apex acute or acuminate; secondary veins 4 or 5 pairs; stipules lanceolate to narrowly triangular, 2-7 mm, acute. Inflorescences with peduncles slender, 3-20 mm, glabrous or usually strigose to hirtellous; bracts 1 or 2 on upper part of peduncle, 0.5-1 mm. Calyx glabrous to strigillose; ovary portion subglobose, 1-2 mm; limb deeply lobed; lobes ovate-triangular, 0.8-1 mm. Corolla outside glabrous to strigillose or sericeous, inside hirtellous in upper part of tube and usually onto basal half of lobes; tube cylindrical to somewhat funnelform, 8-15 mm; lobes elliptic-oblong to spatulate, 4-6 mm, obtuse to rounded. Anthers 3.5-4 mm. Stigma 2.5-3 mm. Capsule brownish yellow, compressed globose or compressed ellipsoid, weakly didymous, 4-6 × 5-8 mm; seeds 1.5-2 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Dec.

Thickets or forests on mountains or hills; 100-1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan (Ryukyu Islands)].

This is a commonly collected species in China.