黑果茵芋 hei guo yin yu

Shrubs 1-2 m tall, monoecious, dioecious, or monoclinous. Branches with hollow pith; bark pale grayish green, smooth, cracked when dry. Petiole 5-10 mm; leaf blade elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 3-7 × 1.5-2.5 cm, midvein adaxially pubescent, apex acuminate to acute. Inflorescences to 4 cm, with condensed flowers; rachis puberulent; bracts ca. 1 mm. Flowers subsessile. Sepals broadly ovate, 1-1.5 mm, margin ciliate. Petals 5, yellowish white, oblanceolate to oblong, 3-4 mm, subequal, reflexed in male flowers. Male flowers: stamens as long as or slightly longer than petals. Female and bisexual flowers: stamens shorter than petals; ovary subglobose; style cylindric. Fruit bluish black, subglobose, ca. 8 mm in diam., (4 or)5-loculed, apex with (4 or)5 stylar scars. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Sep-Nov.

● Dense or open forests; 2000-3000 m. S Gansu, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan.

Taylor (Kew Mag. 4: 189. 1987) placed Skimmia melanocarpa in synonymy of S. laureola subsp. laureola.