广西美登木 guang xi mei deng mu

Shrubs, to 3 m tall; twigs thorny, thorns sturdy. Petiole 5-13 mm; leaf blade elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 6.5-21 × 3.5-10 cm, thickly papery, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, margin crenate, apex acute or obtuse; lateral veins tenuous, 8 or 9 pairs. Cymes fascicled, 2-4 × branched, 7-25-flowered; peduncle short, branches ca. 1 cm; pedicel 3-8 mm; bracts and bractlets small, broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm. Flowers white, 6-8 mm in diam.; sepals ovate-rounded, ciliate; petals oblong, erose. Disk thick. Filament ca. 2.5 mm. Ovary with obvious style; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule purple-brown, obovoid, 1.4-1.8 × 1-1.2 cm, 3-valved. Seeds red-brown, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 6-8 × ca. 5 mm, covered by white aril at base. Fl. Nov-Dec.

● Dry calcareous mountain slopes, scrub. Guangxi.

The leaves of this species are used medicinally.