Alchornea trewioides (Benth.) Muell. Arg.

Chinese name: 紅背山麻桿 

Common name:  Christmas Bush 　

Description:

Habit: Shrubs 1 - 2 tall; branchlets grey-puberulous to glabrous

Leaves: Leaves thinly papery, broad-ovate, 8 - 15 cm long, 7 - 13 cm wide, base shallowly cordate or subtruncate, with 4 macular glands, apex acute or acuminate, margins sparsely glandular-serrulate, glabrous adaxially, reddish and along veins puberulous abaxially; basilar veins 3; stipules lanceolate, 2 - 3.5 mm long; petioles 7 - 12 cm long; stipules subulate, 3 - 5 mm long, hairy, deciduous

Flowers:  Flowers dioecious; male inflorescences spicate axillary, 7 - 15 cm long, puberulous; bracts triangular, ca. 1 mm long; bract-axils with 3 - 11 clustered male flowers; pedicels ca. 2 mm long, glabrous, jointed at middle part; female inflorescences racemose, terminal, 5 - 6 cm long, 5- to 12-flowered, puberulous; bracts narrowly triangular, ca. 4 mm long, 2-glanular at base; bracteoles lanceolate, ca. 3 mm long, pedicels ca. 1 mm long. male flowers: sepals 4, oblong, glabrous; stamens 7 - 8. female flowers: sepals 5 - 6, lanceolate, 3 - 4 mm long, pubescent, there in lones with 1 gland at base; ovary globose, tomentellate; styles 3, linear, 12 - 15 mm long, connate at base  

Fruits: Capsules more globose, more strongly lobed, 8 - 10 mm in diameter, smooth, shortly grey-tomentellous

Seeds: Seeds flat-ovoid, 6 mm long, brownish, tuberculate

Flowering: From March to May

Fruiting: From June to August

Distribution: Aberdeen, Bowen Rd, Lantau Island, Lugard Rd, Peak Rd, Pok Fu Lam Reservoir Rd, Tai Hang, Victory Avenue, Wan Chai Gap. Montane sparse forests or brushwoods. 100 - 400 m alt . Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan. Thailand, Vietnam, Japan

Uses: -