毛蛇藤 mao she teng

Colubrina asiatica (Linnaeus) Brongniart var. subpubescens (Pitard) M. C. Johnston; C. pubescens Kurz (1872), not (Ruiz & Pavón) G. Don (1832); C. pubescens var. subpubescens Pitard.

Shrubs evergreen. Young branchlets, annual branches, and inflorescences densely pubescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 8-15 mm, densely pubescent; leaf blade ovate-elliptic, 4-8 × 1.5-3 cm, thinly papery or submembranous, abaxially pubescent on veins, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 3-5 pairs, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin inconspicuously remotely serrulate, apex acuminate. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, in axillary cymes; peduncles 1-3 mm. Pedicels 2-3 mm. Calyx tube hemispherical; sepals triangular, adaxially keeled. Petals obovate, ca. as long as stamens. Disk thick, rounded. Ovary semi-inferior, immersed in disk; styles 3-cleft. Capsule ca. 8 mm in diam., basally almost up to middle surrounded by remnants of calyx tube, 3-loculed; locules 1-seeded, loculicidally dehiscent at maturity; fruiting pedicel 8-12 mm.

Riverbanks. S Yunnan (Lancang Jiang) [Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand].

Johnston (Brittonia 23: 2-53. 1971) transferred this species into the synonymy of Colubrina asiatica. Because of the differences in habitat (C. asiatica is exclusively found along tropical coasts, whereas C. javanica may occur in uplands quite distant from the coast) and the differences in indumentum and length of fruiting pedicels, we decided to maintain it as a separate species.