Celastrus flagellaris Rupr.

Deciduous twining shrubs; branchlets glabrous; winter buds small, triangular, apex obtuse, outer pairs of bud scales persistent and thornlike, 1.5-2.5 mm, reddish brown. Petiole slender, generally as long as 1/3-1/2 leaf blade; stipules filiform, deeply lacerate, 2-3 mm, deciduous; leaf blade broadly elliptic or broadly ovate-elliptic, somewhat obovate-elliptic, 3-6 × 2-4.5 cm, base narrowly cuneate, margin serrulate to serrate, teeth generally with minute spines, apex mucronate or very shortly acuminate; secondary veins 4 or 5 pairs, midvein sparsely and shortly pubescent or approximately glabrous. Cymes axillary, 1-5-flowered or more, rachis very short, 1-2 mm or absent; pedicels 2-5 mm, jointed below middle. Male flowers: sepals rectangular, ca. 1.8 mm; petals narrowly rectangular-obovate, 3-3.5 × 1-1.2 mm; disk shallowly cupuliform, apex approximately truncate; stamens slightly longer than corolla. Female flowers: staminodes ca. 1 mm; ovary globose. Capsule globose, 2-8 mm. Seeds approximately elliptic, ca. 3 × 2 mm, brown. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Sep.

Riverside forests, thickets, valleys, sunny slopes. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning [Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East)].

Celastrus ciliidens Miquel.