柃叶冬青 ling ye dong qing

Trees evergreen, small. Branchlets yellow-brown, terete, longitudinally ridged, densely pubescent, branches more than 2 years old longitudinally fissured; terminal buds ovoid, densely pubescent. Leaves on first to second year’s branchlets; petiole 3-4 mm, densely pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, shiny when dry, ovate, rarely ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 × 1-1.5 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially slightly raised, adaxially slightly impressed, puberulent, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, slightly raised abaxially, indistinct adaxially, reticulate veins evident abaxially, absent adaxially, base obtuse, margin sparsely 5- or 6-spinose-dentate, apex triangular, acuminate, terminated by a short spine. Flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes, fasciculate, axillary on current year’s branchlets; fascicles 3- or 4-fruited; bracts ovate, ciliate; fruiting pedicels ca. 2 mm, pubescent, with basal bracteole. Fruit red, globose, 5-5.5 mm in diam., minutely tuberculate (under magnifying lens); persistent calyx quadrangular, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes deltoid-ovate, ciliate; persistent stigma mammilliform, nearly square, retuse at median; pyrenes 4, oblong, 4-5 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., both ends obtuse, abaxially longitudinally 4-striate and 3-sulcate, laterally striate and sulcate, endocarp woody. Fl. unknown, fr. Oct.

● Sparse woods; 800-1500 m. W Hubei (Lichuan).