小花使君子 xiao hua shi jun zi

Sphalanthus confertus Jack, Malayan Misc. 2(7): 55. 1822; Quisqualis densiflora Wallich ex Miquel.

Branchlets brown pilose. Petiole 3-7 mm, with an inflated joint near base, brown pilose; leaf blade oblong, 5-13 × 2-5.5 cm, abaxially glabrous except sparsely pilose on midvein and with denser hairs in axils of lateral veins, adaxially glabrous and finely white verruculose, base rounded, apex acuminate. Inflorescences dense; bracts leaflike, lanceolate, 5-12 × 2-4 mm, brown pilose, becoming sparsely so. Calyx tube 1.7-2.4 cm, brown pilose; lobes triangular-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, apex cuspidate, cusp filiform, 1-3 mm, often recurved. Petals opening dark red or reddish, oblong-elliptic, ca. 3.5 × 2 mm. Fruit glossy black when ripe, ovoid, conspicuously 5-ridged, ca. 2.5 cm, glabrous. Fl. Jan.

Dense forests, wetlands; 400-1100 m. Yunnan [Cambodia, Indonesia (Sumatra), Malaysia, Thailand, S Vietnam].

Records of Quisqualis caudata Craib from Yunnan (e.g., in FRPS 53(1): 17. 1984) are based on misidentifications of Q. conferta. Quisqualis caudata is endemic to Thailand and differs in having calyx lobes with an apical cusp not more than 1 mm and not recurved.