薄核冬青 bo he dong qing

Trees evergreen, ca. 7 m tall, ca. 20 cm d.b.h. Young branchlets subterete, longitudinally striate, glabrous; old branches yellow-brown, with black blotches, terete, minutely longitudinally fissured; terminal buds conical, small, glabrous. Leaves on first to third year’s branchlets; petiole 5-8 mm, abaxially transversely rugose, adaxially sulcate, glabrous; leaf blade dark green when dry, obovate-elliptic or elliptic, 5-8 × 2-3 cm, leathery, glabrous, abaxially brown glandular punctate, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, slightly raised on both surfaces, obliquely extended, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins distinct on both surfaces, base cuneate or obtuse, margin slightly revolute, sparsely crenulate-serrate, teeth black, apex shortly acuminate, rarely rounded. Flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes, solitary or fasciculate, fascicles 2-4-fruited, axillary on current year’s branchlets; axis nearly absent; fruiting pedicels 6-28 mm, longitudinally striate, glabrous; bracteoles 2, subbasal, ovate-deltoid, glabrous, ciliate. Fruit globose, 1-1.2 cm in diam., glabrous; young fruit deep green, glandular punctate; persistent calyx explanate, subquadrangular, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, glabrous; persistent stigma discoid, slightly 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, oblong, transverse section V-form, with tips at both ends, ca. 7 mm, ca. 5 mm in diam., abaxially broadly sulcate, irregularly rugose and pitted, laterally irregularly reticulately striate and pitted, endocarp leathery or woody. Fl. unknown, fr. Jun.

● Sparse forests, hills; ca. 900 m. Guangdong (Lianshan).