西南巴戟 xi nan ba ji

Lianas or shrubs; branches when young densely hirtellous, becoming glabrescent, angled, whitened, pale purplish blue, or brown. Leaves opposite; petiole 5-15 mm, hirtellous; blade drying papery or leathery, adaxially brownish yellow or brownish gray, abaxially pale brown, elliptic-oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or oblong-linear, 7-13 × 2-4 cm, adaxially sparsely hirtellous, subglabrous, or glabrous, abaxially glabrous or strigillose-pilosulous at least on principal veins, base cuneate or rounded, apex acute, acuminate, or obtuse then abruptly mucronulate; secondary veins 5-7 pairs; stipules 3-5 mm. Inflorescence terminal; peduncles 3-10, fasciculate or umbellate, 5-20 mm, puberulent, as a group sometimes subtended by 1 linear bract; heads 1 per peduncle, 5-10-flowered. Flowers fused at base, biology not noted. Calyx limb reduced, truncate. Corolla white, urceolate to campanulate, outside puberulent; tube ca. 2.5 mm, inside densely bearded; lobes 4 or 5, linear, ca. 2.5 mm. Drupecetum subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam. Fl. Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Forests or thickets on mountains, shady rock sides. Guangxi, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.