Premna acutata W. W. Sm.

Species 28–33 in this account are very similar, and their status requires further investigation. Key characters such as flower color and corolla indumentum show more variation than has traditionally been accepted.

Shrubs 1-4 m tall. Branchlets sparsely lenticellate, dusty yellow tomentose when young, becoming yellow-brown and glabrous. Leaves pairs unequal; petiole 4-12 mm, pubescent, glandular; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 4-8 X 2-4 cm, glandular, abaxially yellow-green and subglabrous, adaxially dark green and minutely hirsute especially on veins, base cuneate to subrounded, margin deeply and sharply serrate, apeX acuminate to caudate-acuminate; veins 3 or 4 pairs, 3-veined at base. Inflorescences subsessile, 1.5-2.5 cm across. Calyx 5-8 mm, tube ca. 1.5 mm, deeply 5-dentate, minutely hirsute and yellow glandular. Corolla rose red, slightly longer than calyx, 2-lipped, outside puberulent and glandular, inside villous. Stamens nearly as long as corolla. Ovary with a few hairs, glandular. Fruit black, ovate-globose, ca. 4 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. summer-autumn.

SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan

* Thicket edges; 2700-3000 m.