蒲桃叶冬青 pu tao ye dong qing

Trees evergreen, 6-25 m tall. Current year’s branchlets castaneous or brown, angular, glabrous; second year’s branchlets gray, terete, thinly fissured, lenticels elliptic or circular. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, glabrous, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade brown when dry, rather shiny, elliptic, 7-10 × 3-5 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein adaxially proximally slightly raised, flattened or subimpressed toward distal half, lateral veins 6-11(-13) pairs, rather evident adaxially, reticulate veins obscure, base cuneate, rarely obtuse or rounded, margin entire, recurved, apex acuminate, acumen 7-10 mm. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2 or 3, 3-7-flowered, fasciculate, axillary, glabrous; peduncles 3-5 mm; pedicels 2-2.5 mm; flowers white, 5-merous; calyx patelliform, lobes suborbicular, margin erose; corolla rotate, ca. 6 mm in diam., petals oblong, ca. 3.5 mm; stamens ca. as long as petals; rudimentary ovary ovoid. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: cymes of order 2 or 3, 2-4-fruited, fasciculate, axillary or laterally at base on young branchlets; peduncle 4-5(-10) mm; fruiting pedicels 4-5 mm. Fruit red, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam.; persistent calyx 5-lobed, lobes broadly deltoid, ciliate; persistent stigma papillate, striate; pyrenes 5, ellipsoidal, ca. 3 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., abaxially striate, not sulcate, laterally striate, endocarp leathery. Fl. Jun, fr. Aug-Nov.

● Sparse forests, streamsides in valleys; 600-1600 m. N Guangdong (Ruyuan, Yangshan).