微香冬青 wei xiang dong qing

Trees evergreen, ca. 12 m tall. Branchlets brownish, castaneous, or purple, stout, leaf scars raised, lenticels absent, glabrous; terminal buds conical, glabrous, bud scales ciliate. Stipules obscure, caducous; petiole 8-12 mm, adaxially narrowly and deeply sulcate, pubescent or glabrous; leaf blade adaxially brown or gray-brown when dry, shiny, elliptic-lanceolate or oblanceolate, 6-9 × 2-3 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin strongly serrate, teeth black and apiculate, apex acuminate, acumen 5-12 mm. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets, pubescent; bracts ovate, ciliate; flowers 4-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered; peduncles 1-2 mm; pedicels ca. 4 mm; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx patelliform, shallowly 4-lobed, lobes orbicular or deltoid, sparsely ciliate; corolla ca. 6 mm in diam., petals oblong, basally slightly connate; stamens ca. as long as or slightly shorter than petals, anthers oblong-ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose-ovoid, apex obtuse. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes; fruiting pedicels 1-2 mm; persistent bracteoles 2, basal. Fruit red, depressed globose, ca. 4 mm, ca. 5 mm in diam., apex depressed; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 2 mm in diam., ciliate; persistent stigma navel-like or thinly discoid; pyrenes 4, subglobose, ca. 3 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, laterally rugose, endocarp stony. Fl. Jul, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Dense forests along mountain rivers; 1600-1700 m. SW Guizhou (Zhenfeng), Yunnan.