Ardisia chinensis Benth.

Shrubs or subshrubs with creeping rhizomes. Stems to 45 cm, minutely blackish brown scaly when young, glabrescent. Petiole 3-8(-10) mm, brown scaly; leaf blade obovate or elliptic, 3-8 × 1.5-3 cm, papery, glabrous adaxially, ± brown scaly abaxially, base cuneate, margin undulate or repand to subentire, slightly revolute, apex obtuse to acute; lateral veins numerous, marginal vein present. Inflorescences axillary, simple, subumbellate, 3-10-flowered; peduncle 1-3 cm. Flowers white or sometimes pinkish, ca. 3 mm. Pedicel 5-8 mm, slender, blackish brown scaly. Sepals triangular-ovate, ca. 1 mm, brown scaly, punctate or not, margin ciliate, apex acute. Petals free or nearly so, ovate, glabrous, not punctate, apex acute or acuminate. Stamens ca. 2/3 as long as petals; anthers ovate, punctate or not dorsally, apex acute, apiculate. Ovary glabrous, ovules 5 or 6, uniseriate. Fruit red becoming blackish, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., not punctate, glabrous. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Oct-Dec.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam]

Mixed forests, hillsides, valleys, along streams, dark damp places; 300-800 m.

Ardisia jiajiangensis Z. Y. Zhu; A. triflora Hemsley; Bladhia chinensis (Bentham) Nakai; B. chinensis var. minor Nakai; Tinus chinensis (Bentham) Kuntze; T. triflora (Hemsley) Kuntze.