独行千里 du xing qian li

Capparis acuminata Lindley; C. chinensis D. Don; C. kikuchii Hayata; C. leptophylla Hayata; C. membranacea Gardner & Champion; C. membranacea var. angustissima Hemsley; C. membranacea var. puberula B. S. Sun; C. tenuifolia Hayata.

Vines or shrubs, 1-7(-10) m tall, glabrous or twigs, petiole, and pedicels sometimes dirty yellow shortly tomentose but soon glabrescent. Twigs pale yellowish green when dry, terete, spineless or sometimes with ca. 3 mm straight or ascending stipular spines. Petiole 5-7 mm; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 4-15(-19.5) × (0.8-)1-4(-6.3) cm, stiffly herbaceous to subleathery, yellowish green and thin when dried, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially flat or impressed, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, reticulate veins obvious on both surfaces, base cuneate to sometimes rounded, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences superaxillary rows, (1 or)2-4-flowered. Flower buds oblong, 5-6 × ca. 4 mm. Pedicel (0.5-)1.2-1.5 cm, with proximal ones shortest. Sepals of outer whorl ovate and of inner whorl elliptic, ca. (5-)6(-7) × 3-4 mm, outside glabrate, inside tomentose. Petals white, obovate, 9-12 × 3-5 mm, both surfaces ± tomentose or outside glabrous. Stamens (19 or)20-30; filaments 2-2.7 cm; anthers 1-1.5 mm. Gynophore (1.2-)1.7-2.3 cm; ovary ovoid to narrowly ovoid, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; placentae 2. Fruit red, subglobose, (0.8-)1.6-1.9 × 1.2-1.9 cm, with small verrucose areas when dry, apex with a 1-2 mm beak; stipe ca. 0.5 mm thick. Seeds 1 to several per fruit, blackish brown, 7-8(-10) × 5-6 × ca. 4 mm, smooth. Fl. Apr-May, fr. throughout year.

Roadsides, stony mountains, thickets, forests; 300-1100 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi (Dayu), Taiwan, E Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, N Thailand, C Vietnam].