小果野桐 xiao guo ye tong

Shrubs 1-3.5 m tall. Branchlets slender, densely whitish pubescent, becoming glabrescent. Stipules triangular, ca. 2 mm; petiole 3-20 cm; leaf blade broadly to narrowly ovate, sometimes 1-3-lobed, 5-22 × 3.5-18 cm, papery, abaxially pubescent, sparsely yellowish glandular-scaly, adaxially pilosulose and sparsely stellate-pilosulose, base obtuse or truncate, rarely shallowly peltate and cordate, with 2-4 basal glands, margin denticulate, apex acuminate or acute; basal veins 3-5. Male inflorescences terminal, unbranched, 7-20 cm, puberulent; bracts ovate. Male flowers 3-9-fascicled; pedicel ca. 3 mm; calyx lobes 3 or 4, ovate, pilosulose; stamens 50-60. Female inflorescences unbranched, 12-14 cm, puberulent; bracts subulate, 1-2 mm. Female flowers: sepals 4 or 5, triangular, ca. 1.5 mm, puberulent; ovary puberulent and scabrous; styles 3, ca. 3 mm, basally connate, plumose. Fruiting pedicel 2.5-3 mm; capsule 3-locular, ca. 6 mm in diam., sparsely shortly softly spiny, puberulent and glandular-scaly. Seeds ovoid, ca. 2.5 mm, dull brownish. Fl. Aug-Oct.

Mountain slopes or roadsides, thickets, sometimes on limestone hills; 200-1000 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, S Hunan, S Jiangxi [N Vietnam].