少子叶下珠 shao zi ye xia zhu

Deciduous shrubs, monoecious, glabrous throughout; branchlets slender, purplish. Stipules lanceolate or linear, 2-3 mm; petiole ca. 2 mm; leaf blade oblong-elliptic or elliptic, 1.8-4.3 × 1-1.6 cm, papery, glaucescent abaxially, green adaxially, base cuneate or acute, apex obtuse, cuspidate at tip; lateral veins 7-11 pairs, raised on both surfaces. Inflorescence an axillary fascicle with 10-25 male flowers and 1 (rarely more) female flower. Male flowers: pedicels filamentous 3-5 mm; sepals 5(-7), spreading, yellow, ovate to elliptic, apex obtuse; disk 5(-7)-lobed, lobes alternate with stamens; stamens 4 or 5(-7); filaments free, ca. 1.5 mm; anthers reniform. Female flowers: pedicels 3-5 mm; sepals 5, green or greenish white, oblong-lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm; disk annular or shallowly lobed; ovary broadly ovate, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm; styles 3, ca. 0.3 mm, connate at base, spreading, sometimes reflexed. Fruit a succulent berry, globose, 4-6 mm in diam., red to purplish black, ca. 4- or 5-seeded. Seed trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, smooth or nearly so. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Montane shrub fields. Taiwan (Hualian, Pingdong, Taoyuan).