Vasilis Teodoridis:
Rhamnaceae | Sageretia
13. Sageretia thea (Osbeck) M. C. Johnston; J. Arnold Arbor. 49: 378. 1968.
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Shrubs scandent or erect; to 3 m tall; armed. Branchlets slender; alternate or subopposite; brownish; terminating in a spine; finely tomentose when young. Leaves opposite at basal nodes to alternate; petiole 2-7 mm; puberulent; leaf blade abaxially pale green; adaxially green; usually elliptic; oblong; or ovate-elliptic; rarely ovate or nearly orbicular; 2-4.5 x 0.7-2.5 cm; papery; abaxially glabrous or pubescent on veins; sometimes tomentose and glabrescent; adaxially glabrous; lateral veins 3-5(-7) pairs; conspicuously prominent abaxially; base rounded or subcordate; margin serrulate; apex acute; obtuse; or rounded. Flowers yellow; sessile; fragrant; usually 2- to few fascicled in terminal or axillary lax spikes or paniculate spikes; rachis 2-5 cm; sparsely puberulent. Calyx tube sparsely pubescent; shallowly cup-shaped; sepals triangular; ca. 1 mm. Petals spatulate; shorter than sepals; apex 2-fid; often reflexed. Disk fleshy; glabrous; distinctly thickened around ovary. Ovary 3-loculed; with 1 ovule per locule; style very short; stigma 3-fid. Drupe black or purple-black at maturity; subglobose to obovoid; ca. 5 mm in diam.; with 1-3 pyrenes; mesocarp fleshy; sour-tasting. Seeds flat; emarginate at both ends. Fl. Jul-Sep; fr. Mar-May of following year.
Mountain forests; thickets; hills; below 2100 m. Anhui; Fujian; Gansu; Guangdong; Guangxi; Hubei; Hunan; Jiangsu; Jiangxi; Sichuan; Taiwan; Yunnan; Zhejiang [India; Japan; Korea; Thailand; Vietnam].