毛叶刺篱木 mao ye ci li mu

Small trees or shrubs, 3-4 m (?or more) tall, apparently unarmed; branchlets ± rusty pubescent, hairs spreading, rather long. Petiole 5-10 mm, stoutish, densely hairy, hairs spreading, brownish, straight, long (0.5-1 mm); leaf blade ovate to ovate-elliptic, 11-18 × 4.5-7.5 cm, thickly papery, abaxially softly pubescent throughout, soft to the touch, hairs spreading and long (0.5-1 mm), adaxially glabrous except near petiole apex, midvein impressed above, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, prominent abaxially, base broadly acute to rounded, margin shallowly serrate to serrulate, entire toward base, apex obtuse, contracting to a narrow acumen 1-2 cm, extreme tip obtuse. Inflorescences mostly axillary, racemose with axis ca. 1 cm, or reduced to glomerules or fascicles; rachises densely hairy, appearing nearly bristly at × 10 mag., hairs spreading, ca. 0.5 mm; bracts ovate to lanceolate, 1-2 mm, both surfaces sparsely bristly. Pedicels ca. 1 mm in pistillate flowers, ca. 3 mm in staminate flowers (few specimens seen), bristly. Sepals 4-6, ovate, 1-1.5 mm, unequal in size, both sides and margin sparsely bristly, or adaxially nearly glabrous, apex acute. Staminate flowers: stamen filaments 3-4 mm, glabrous. Pistillate flowers: ovary bottle-shaped, 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; styles connate into a short column ca. 0.5 mm; stigmas 4-6, radiating, recurved, flattened-reniform. Dried fruit oblong-polygonal to obovoid-polygonal, to ca. 1 cm (?immature), longitudinally angled.

Mountain forests; 1000-1700 m. Yunnan [Myanmar].

Flacourtia mollis is sometimes misidentified as the Indian en- demic F. montana J. Graham. The two species can be distinguished by the abaxial indumentum of the leaf: in F. mollis , it is softly hairy throughout; in F. montana, it is sparsely hairy only along the midvein and lateral veins. Gatherings of F. mollis seem scarce; more material is required to confirm and improve the above description.