Flora of China 13: 118–121. 2007. 4. FLACOURTIA Commerson ex L’Héritier, Stirp. Nov. 3: 59. 1786. 刺篱木属 ci li mu shu Stigmarota Loureiro. Trees or shrubs, dioecious or hermaphroditic, rarely polygamous, usually spiny. Leaves alternate, petiolate; stipules small, early caducous; leaf blade pinnate-veined, sometimes 3–5-veined from base, margin glandular-toothed, rarely entire. Inflorescences axil-lary, or terminal on abbreviated lateral twigs, usually short, lax, racemose, or in form of small paniculate or umbel-like clusters. Flowers hypogynous, unisexual or bisexual, small; pedicels articulate. Sepals 4–7, imbricate, slightly connate at base, green, small. Petals absent. Disk fleshy, entire or comprised of distinct glands. Staminate flowers: stamens many, exserted, filaments free, filiform; anthers ellipsoid, small, versatile, longitudinally dehiscent, connective not projected beyond thecae; disk extrastaminal; abortive ovary much reduced or absent. Pistillate flowers: disk surrounding base of ovary; ovary superior, globose, ovoid, or bottle-shaped, incompletely 2–8-loculed by false septa; placentas 2-ovuled; styles isomerous with placentas, free or united, columnar; stigmas slightly dilated, flattened, reniform, recurved; staminodes usually absent. Fruit a berrylike indehiscent drupe with pyrenes 2 × as many as styles, globose, in dried material characteristically longitudinally angled, squarish or rectangular in longitudinal cross-section, with flattish apex and base, contracted or not at equator, disk persistent at base, style or stigma remnants persistent at apex. Seeds ellipsoid, compressed. Between 15 and 17 species: tropical Africa and Asia; five species (one endemic) in China. In Chinese species: plants usually dioecious; stamens (10–)15–30(–50), number apparently variable within each species. Flacourtia species are often cultivated and harvested for fruit, medicinal use, or wood. Male flowers of Flacourtia are easily confused with those of Xylosma; female flowers of the two genera are easily distinguished by style and stigma morphology, young fruits by style morphology and internal structure. Key to material with female flowers or fruit 1a. Abaxial surface of leaf softly and densely pubescent throughout ..................................................................................... 5. F. mollis 1b. Abaxial surface of leaf glabrous or sparsely hairy. 2a. Styles completely united to form a distinct column with stigmas slightly spreading at apex .............................. 1. F. jangomas 2b. Styles free, or joined only at base. 3a. Styles free, arranged in a ring, becoming well-spaced as fruit develops; leaves ovate-oblong, elliptic-oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, 6–16 × 4–7 cm ................................................................................................................... 2. F. rukam 3b. Styles joined at base, remaining so in fruit; leaves obovate, oblong-obovate, elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, 2–10 × 1.5–6 cm. 4a. Leaves 2–4 × 1.5–3 cm, obovate or oblong-obovate; fruit 8–10 mm in diam. ............................................. 3. F. indica 4b. Leaves 4–10 × 2.5–6 cm, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate; fruit 15–25 mm in diam. ................................ 4. F. ramontchi Identification of material with male flowers Flacourtia mollis can be recognized by its leaf indumentum, and F. i n d i ca (as defined here) by its leaf size and shape. The remaining three species are much more difficult, at least from herbarium material, as staminate flowers seem to offer no useful characters; leaves on flowering specimens are often young, and therefore, generally small, and in all three species the leaf shape and size is variable, with character states overlapping between the species. Flacourtia jangomas usually has ovate to ovate-elliptic or more rarely ovate-lanceolate leaves, and F. ramontchi elliptic leaves, but all of these shapes seem to occur also in F. r u k a m . Most flora keys rely heavily on style characters to distinguish species. Staminate herbarium material might easily be misidentified. A molecular study based on fertile material could help resolve this problem. 1. Flacourtia jangomas (Loureiro) Raeuschel, Nomencl. Bot., ed. 3, 290. 1797. 云南刺篱木 yun nan ci li mu Stigmarota jangomas Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 2: 634. 1790; Flacourtia cataphracta Roxburgh ex Willdenow. Large shrubs or small trees, 5–10 m tall, deciduous; trunk and older branches usually unarmed, young branches with sim-ple or divaricate spines; bark yellow-brown, reddish brown, or light brown, flaky; young branches smooth, glabrous or sparse-ly pubescent, lenticellate. Petiole 4–8 mm, pubescent or gla-brescent; leaf blade dark green abaxially, shiny adaxially, in fresh state pinkish to reddish or orange-brown when young, narrowly ovate, ovate-elliptic, or ovate-oblong, rarely oblong-lanceolate or (slightly) obovate-lanceolate, 7–14 × 2–5 cm, thinly leathery to papery, both surfaces practically glabrous, any hairs present very short, midvein slightly raised on both sur-faces, lateral veins 3–6 pairs, conspicuous adaxially, base acute, obtuse, or rounded, margin entire or serrate to crenate, apex ob-tuse or gradually tapering to narrowly acuminate, rarely more abruptly acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, racemose; rachisFlora of China 13: 118–121. 2007. 0.5–2 cm, puberulous. Pedicels 5–10(–15) mm, very slender, minutely and sparsely puberulous or glabrous; bracts ovate, 0.5–1 mm, outside glabrous or sparsely hairy, inside pubescent, margin entire, ciliate. Flowers appearing with or before young leaves, white to greenish, honey-scented. Sepals 4 or 5, ca. 2 mm, ovate-triangular, apex obtuse, outside practically glabrous, inside pubescent, margin ciliate, hairs very short, often barely visible in female flowers. Staminate flowers: stamen filaments 2–3 mm, glabrous. Pistillate flowers: ovary bottle-shaped to globose, 2–3 mm; styles 4–6, united into a distinct column ca. 1 mm, not or slightly free at their apices; stigmas slightly reni-form, dilated, recurved. Fruit brownish red or purple, finally blackish, subglobose, fleshy, 1.5–2.5 cm in diam., in dried material sometimes constricted at equator, style column per-sistent. Seeds 4 or 5(–10). Fl. Apr–May, fr. May–Oct. ● Mountain rain forests, evergreen broad-leaved forests; 700–800 m. W Guangxi, S Hainan, S