高山冬青 gao shan dong qing

Shrubs evergreen, small, 1-2 m tall. Young branchlets densely yellow hirsute-pubescent; old branchlets stout, gray- brown or smoky pubescent. Stipules persistent, triangular, minute; petiole 2-3 mm, sparsely pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny, obovate-oblong or oblong, 1-3 × 0.6-1.4 cm, leathery, glabrous except on midvein adaxially, rugose when dry, midvein raised on both surfaces, densely yellow hirsute adaxially, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, obscure on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin slightly recurved, entire in lower half, crenulate-serrate in upper half, apex rounded or obtuse. Male flowers not known. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary, axillary on scales at base or at lower leaves of current year’s branchlets; pedicels 2-5 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulent; bracteoles absent; flowers red, (4 or)5(or 6)-merous; calyx patelliform, 3-4 mm in diam., lobes deltoid-ovate, glabrous, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 7 mm in diam., petals ovate-oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate, apex rounded; staminodes 5, ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers minute; ovary conical-ovoid, stigma capitate, 5-lobed. Fruit red, globose, 5-7 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel ca. 6 mm; persistent calyx explanate; persistent stigma thickly discoid; pyrenes (3-)5, ellipsoidal, ca. 5 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., abaxially smooth, not striate, not sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Nov.

● Forests, Abies forests, thickets, alpine shrub forests; 2700-3700(-4300) m. W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.