大柱头冬青 da zhu tou dong qing

Shrubs evergreen, 1.5-2 m tall. Current year’s branchlets yellow-brown when dry, longitudinally angulate and sulcate, glabrous; second year’s branchlets terete, longitudinally fissured; leaf scars slightly raised, deltoid; lenticels obscure; terminal buds narrowly conical, glabrous. Petiole 5-8 mm, glabrous, abaxially subrounded, transversely rugose, adaxially broadly sulcate; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 4.5-8.5 × 1.8-2.5 cm, thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 8 or 9 pairs, obliquely ascending, raised abaxially, flattened or slightly raised adaxially, furcate and anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, margin sparsely shallowly serrate, apex acuminate to long acuminate. Male flowers not known. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on current year’s branchlets; pedicels 2-3 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2, basal, ovate, ciliate; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes broadly deltoid, ca. 0.5 × 1 mm, ciliate; petals and staminodes not seen; ovary ovoid, 1.5-2 mm in diam., glabrous, stigma black when dry, trapezoid-conical, large, ca. 0.5 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam. Fruit not known. Fl. Apr, fr. unknown.

● Forests, stream banks, mountain slopes; 1800-2500 m. NW Yunnan (Heqing).