密花美登木 mi hua mei deng mu

Shrubs, to 4 m tall; twigs thorny, thorns sturdy, erect or sometimes slightly decurved. Petiole 6-10 mm; leaf blade broadly elliptic or obovate, 11-24 × 3-9 cm, papery, base cuneate, margin crenate, apex shortly acuminate; lateral veins tenuous, 9-13 pairs. Cymes numerous, fascicled at axils, ca. 60-flowered, subglobose, 1-1.5 cm; peduncle very short or absent; branches and pedicel tenuous, 4-6 mm; bracts and bractlets small, margin fimbriate. Flowers small, white, 8-10 mm in diam.; sepals triangular-ovate, purplish; petals oblong, ca. 4 × 2 mm. Filament ca. 2 mm. Stigma 3-lobed. Capsule purplish brown, obovoid, 1-1.5 cm, 3-valved. Seeds oblong, covered by white aril at base. Fl. Nov-Dec.

● Dry calcareous mountain slopes and jungles. Guangxi.

The leaves of this species are used medicinally.