中型冬青 zhong xing dong qing

Trees evergreen, 5-10 m tall. Young branchlets yellow-brown, longitudinally angular, puberulent or glabrescent; older than second year’s branchlets glabrous, leaf scars crescent-shaped, slightly raised, lenticels absent; terminal buds conical, bud scales ciliate. Stipules minute, deltoid; petiole 9-16 mm, puberulent or glabrous, abaxially rounded, rugose, adaxially shallowly and broadly sulcate; leaf blade adaxially deep green, shiny, oblong-elliptic, ovate-elliptic, or obovate-elliptic, 6-12.5 × 2.5-5 cm, leathery, midvein abaxially raised, adaxially flattened or slightly impressed, puberulent or glabrous, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, slightly raised on both surfaces, furcate and anastomosing near middle, reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base cuneate, obtuse, or rarely rounded, margin slightly reflexed, sparsely crenulate or serrate, apex obtuse, acute or very shortly acuminate, or nearly caudate-acuminate. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered, fasciculate or pseudopaniculate, axillary on second year’s branches; rachis 3-5 mm; peduncles ca. 1 mm; pedicels 1-2 mm; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal; flowers yellowish, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., glabrous, 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, sparsely ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 6 mm in diam., petals 4, oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm; stamens slightly longer than petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose, minute, apex obtuse. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes, pseudoracemose; rachis 4-8 mm; fruiting pedicels 5-8 mm, sparsely puberulent; bracteoles 2, submedian. Fruit red, subglobose, ca. 4 mm, ca. 5 mm in diam., tuberculate (under lens); persistent calyx explanate, suborbicular, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes subdeltoid; persistent stigma thickly discoid, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, broadly ellipsoidal or subglobose, ca. 2.5 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and shallowly sulcate, laterally palmately striate, striae reticulate, nearly smooth, endocarp stony. Fl. May, fr. Aug-Oct.

● Forests, hills; 600-1900 m. N and NE Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi (Lu Shan), Sichuan.