Myrsine africana L.

It has been recorded from Baluchistan (Harnai and Loralai) and Salt range by R.R. Stewart (l.c.) and Parker (l.c.). A plant of our northern and N.W. regions. It burns quickly, even when green, because of its glandular leaves. The fruit is used as an anthelmentic.

Shrubs 50-100 cm tall. Branchlets terete, 0.5-2 mm in diam., reddish glandular granulose and puberulent, with capitate trichomes, often glabrescent. Petiole marginate, 1-2.5 mm, strongly decurrent; leaf blade obovate, to orbicular, 1-5 × 0.7-1.6 cm, papery or leathery, glabrous, minutely punctate abaxially, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex obtuse, to rounded; lateral veins inconspicuous, marginal vein absent. Inflorescences axillary, subumbellate or fascicled; basal scales in 1 series. Flowers yellowish white, 2-2.5 mm, 4-merous. Pedicel 0.5-1.5 mm, glabrous or glandular puberulent. Calyx lobes spreading, nearly free, broadly ovate to elliptic, 0.3-0.5 mm, flat, glabrous, margin entire, ciliate, apex acute to obtuse. Corolla 0.8-1 mm, united to at least 1/2 length, glabrous outside, puberulent inside; lobes lanceolate, 0.8-1 mm, densely punctate, margin entire, glandular granuose, apex obtuse to acute. Stamens longer than petals; filaments united basally into a tube adnate to corolla tube, puberulent in staminate flowers. Pistil globose. Style short; stigma discoid, margin lobed. Fruit red or purple-black, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., smooth. Fl. Feb-Jun, fr. Nov-Jan.

Small, evergreen shrub, up to 1 m tall, with pubescent twigs. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to obovate, subsessile, 1-2 (-2.8) cm long, 4-10(-12) mm broad, usually minutely serrate, almost glabrous; those in the flowering region often easily falling. Flowers c. 2 mm across, in almost sessile, axillary clusters. Calyx 4-lobed, 1-1.5 mm long, pubescent to almost glabrous. Corolla 4-lobed, 2-3 mm long. Stamens 4, subsessile with oblong, often purplish anthers overtopping the corolla; style short with large, verrucose stigma. Drupe globose, berry-like, 3-4 mm in diameter, tipped by the style base, smooth, reddish to dark-red, 1-seeded.

Africa, Azores, Arabia, Afghanistan, Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal), Tibet, China, Taiwan.

Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [India; Azores, Africa, SW Asia].

Distribution: Widely distributed in Asia and Africa.

1200-2300 m

Fl. Per.: March-May.

Sparse mixed forests, open mountain slopes, sunny dry places, scrub, fields, roadsides; 1000-3600 m.

Myrsine africana var. acuminata C. Y. Wu & C. Chen; M. africana var. bifaria (Wallich) Franchet; M. africana var. glandulosa J. M. Zhang; M. africana var. retusa A. de Candolle; M. bifaria Wallich; M. microphylla Hayata; M. potama D. Don; M. vaccinifolia Hayata; Rhamnus myrtillus H. Léveillé.