苍叶守宫木 cang ye shou gong mu

Sauropus chorisepalus Merrill & Chun; S. yunnanensis Pax & K. Hoffmann.

Shrubs to 4 m tall, erect, glabrous except for puberulent young branchlets and veins of leaf blade; branches sometimes compressed, usually sharply 2-keeled; branchlets obscurely angular when young, terete with age, slender. Stipules oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-4 mm; petiole ca. 2 mm; leaf blade rhombic-ovate, ovate-lanceolate, rarely oblong or ovate, 2-13 × 1-3.5 cm, membranous or thinly papery, abaxially glaucous or glaucescent, adaxially dark green when dry, base broadly cuneate, rounded, or truncate, apex usually acuminate, rarely acute; venation pinnate, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs. Plants monoecious. Inflorescence axillary, 1- or 2-flowered, or male and female mixed in axillary clusters. Male flowers: pedicels slender, 3-10 mm, with dense bracteoles at base; calyx disk-shaped, 3-5 mm in diam., shallowly 6-fid, segments ovate or subelliptic, apex acute or acuminate, membranous; stamens 3; filaments connate. Female flowers: pedicels slender, 6-15 mm; calyx turbinate; ovary apex truncate, 3-locular; styles 3, bifid at apex, arms recurved. Capsules obovate or subovoid, 1-2.5 cm in diam. Seeds black, triquetrous. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov.

Evergreen forests on slopes or in valleys, moist scrub; 500-2000 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, ?Hainan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan [Laos, Myanmar, Thailand].