Vasilis Teodoridis:
RUBIACEAE
1. Catunaregam spinosa (Thunb.) Tirvengadum; Taxon 27: (5--6): 515. 1978.
??? shan shi liu
Gardenia spinosa Thunb. Diss. Gard. 7: 16. 1780; Gardenia dumetorum Retz.; Randia dumetorum (Retz.) Lam.; Randia spinosa (Thunb.) Bl.; Xeromphis retzii Raf.; Xeromphis spinosa (Thunb.) Keay.
Shrubs or small trees; 1--10 m tall; sometimes climbing; stems much branched; stout; armed with axillary stout paired thorns 1--5 cm long. Leaves opposite or fascicled at top of suppressed lateral short branches; petioles 2--8 mm; pilose or glabrous; leaf blade obovate or oblong-obovate; rarely ovate to spathulate; 1.8--11 x 1--5.7 cm; papery or subcoriaceous; apex acute or acute; base cuneate or decurrent; adaxially and abaxially glabrous or strigose; or sparsely hirsute along midrib and lateral veins; axils often with short clustered hairs (domatia?) abaxially; margin often shortly ciliate; lateral veins slender; 4--7 pairs; slightly prominent abaxially; depressed adaxially; stipules membranous; ovate; 3--4.5 mm long; apex aristate; caduceus. Flowers solitary or 2 or 3 clustered at apex of suppressed lateral short branches with tufted leaves. Pedicels 2--5 mm; brown villose. Calyx tube campanulate or ovoid; 3.5--7 x 4--5.5 mm; brown villose; limb slightly dilated; apex 5-lobed; lobes 5; broadly elliptic; 5--8 x 3--6 mm; apex acute; 3(--5)-nerved; abaxially brown villose; adaxially hirtellste/hispidulous. Corolla white initially; turning pale yellow later; campanulate; densely sericeous hairy; tube broad; 5--6 mm; sparsely villose in throat; lobes 5; ovate or ovate-oblong; 6--10(--11) x (5.5--)8--9 mm; spreading; apex rounded. Anthers linear-oblong; ca. 3 mm; exserted. Style 4--6 mm; apex 2-lobed; stigma fusiform; with 2 coherent lobes; ca. 2 mm. Fruit a berry; globose; 2--4 cm in diameter; glabrous or sparsely pilose; crowned by persistent calyx lobes; pericarp often thick. Seeds many. Fl. Mar--Jun; fr. May--Jan.
Thickets or forests at stream sides; on hills and mountain slopes; and in valleys and fields; 30--1600 m. Taiwan; Guangdong; Guangxi; Hainan; Yunnan; Fujian [Indonesia; Malaysia; Vietnam; Laos; Cambodia; Thailand; Myanmar; Bengal; Nepal; Sikkim; India; Pakistan; Sri Lanka; E Africa].