Barleria prionitis L.

Shrubs to 1.8 m tall with spines in lower leaf axils, branched. Stems and branches terete, smooth, lenticellate, glabrous. Petiole 1-2.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic to ovate, 4-10.5 × 1.8-5.5 cm, both surfaces pubescent when young but soon glabrescent, sparsely strigose along midvein, base attenuate and decurrent onto petiole, margin entire, apex acute. Flowers clustered in axils of upper leaves and/or bracts; bracts linear-oblong, 1.2-2.2 × 0.2-0.8 cm, margin ciliate, apex abruptly acuminate; bracteoles linear-lanceolate, to 1.4 × 0.2 cm, spine-tipped. Outer calyx lobes ovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.4 cm, apex mucronate; inner calyx lobes linear-lanceolate, ca. 1.3 × 0.2 cm, apex mucronate. Corolla yellow to orange, 2.4-4 cm, outside pilose; tube with narrow basal portion slightly shorter than throat; lobes ovate-oblong to orbicular, 8-10 × 6-7 mm, recurved. Stamens 4, longer pair ca. 1.1 cm with anthers ca. 3.2 mm, shorter pair ca. 1.5 mm with anthers ca. 1 mm. Ovary ovoid; stigma slightly enlarged, 2-cleft, exserted. Capsule ovoid, ca. 1.8 cm, contracted gradually at tip forming a beak, 2-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 7 × 5 mm. Fl. Oct-Dec, fr. Dec-Feb. 2n = 40.

Thickets in waste places at low altitudes, sometimes becoming weedy. Roadsides, thickets, dry places in evergreen forests at elevations around 600 metres in southwest China.

Can be grown by seedlings.