上思冬青 shang si dong qing

Shrubs evergreen, ca. 2 m tall, glabrous throughout. Branchlets gray-green, terete, straight, slender; young ones longitudinally ridged, later irregularly rugose; leaf scar obovate or deltoid, lenticels absent; terminal buds narrowly conical, glabrous. Petiole 6-10 mm, glabrous, adaxially narrowly sulcate, broadly winged toward end by decurrent base; leaf blade dark brown when dry, lanceolate, 4-7.5 × 1.2-2 cm, leathery, abaxially punctate, unevenly pubescent, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, evident abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin subentire or minutely glandular-crenulate, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; persistent scales of flower buds glabrous, ciliate; bracts deltoid, apex acute, keeled, ciliate; flowers 4-merous. Male inflorescences: pedicels 2-3 mm; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx discoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes small, ciliate; corolla 6-7 mm in diam., petals 4, ca. 3 mm, basally slightly connate, ciliate; stamens ca. as long as petals, anthers ovoid, ca. 0.75 mm; rudimentary ovary subglobose-pulvinate, minute, apex truncate. Female inflorescences: pedicels ca. 5 mm at fruiting; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx as in male flowers; petals free, ca. 2.5 mm; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers ovoid; ovary globose, stigma thickly discoid. Fruit subglobose, ca. 3 mm, ca. 4 mm in diam., longitudinally sulcate; persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular, ca. 2 mm in diam., ciliate; persistent stigma thickly discoid, evidently 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, subglobose, ca. 2.5 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, laterally rugose and pitted, endocarp stony. Fl. Mar, fr. Jul.

Thickets, swamps on mountains; 800-1200 m. S Guangxi (Shangsi, Shiwan Dashan) [Vietnam].