城步冬青 cheng bu dong qing

Trees evergreen, small, ca. 8 m tall. Branchlets longitudinally ridged; first year’s branchlets brownish yellow; second year’s branchlets grayish black. Petiole 9-12 mm, adaxially sulcate, pubescent; leaf blade abaxially yellow-green when dried, adaxially olivaceous, shiny, lanceolate-elliptic, 6-7.5 × 2.1-2.8 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, base acute to attenuate, margin coarsely serrate, apex acuminate with an obtuse acumen. Flowers not known. Infructescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1- or 2-fruited, fasciculate, axillary; fruiting pedicels 1.5-2 cm. Fruit red, globose, 1.2-1.5 cm in diam.; persistent calyx discoid, lobes inconspicuous; persistent stigma discoid; pyrenes 6, oblong, ca. 1 cm, 5-7 mm in diam., abaxially rugose and pitted, longitudinally striate, endocarp bony. Fl. unknown, fr. Dec.

● Mixed forests, valleys; ca. 800 m. Hunan (Chengbu).