Celastrus aculeatus Merrill

Twining shrubs; branchlets with brown short hairs, glabrescent later; winter buds conical, 2-3 mm, bud scales persistent, somewhat spinelike. Petioles 1-1.8 cm; leaf blade mainly elliptic or rectangular, 5-10 × 3-6 cm, glabrous, sometimes pubescent on veins, base widely cuneate, rarely approximately orbicular, margin sparsely serrulate on apical half, apex acuminate or narrowly acute; secondary veins mainly 5 pairs. Cymes short, axillary or lateral, generally 3-flowered; rachis 2-5 mm, brown pubescent; pedicels 2-3 mm, brown pubescent, jointed distally. Sepals triangular-ovate, up to 2.5 mm; petals rectangular-lanceolate, ca. 4 mm. Disk slightly carnose, entire. Filament slender, 3-4 mm, papillate; staminodia in female flowers only ca. 1.5 mm. Ovary globose. Capsule approximately globose, 7-8 mm wide, persistent sepals obviously enlarged. Seeds crescentiform or semicircular, ca. 5 mm, with tubercles. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Aug-Sep.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

● Sparse forests, thickets, mountainous regions, roadsides; 100-1000 m.