Celastrus hindsii Benth.

Evergreen, up to 30 m. Young branchlets usually without lenticels. Leaves usually coriaceous, glabrous, elliptic-or obovate-oblong, sometimes elliptic or broadly elliptic, 4-14.5 by 1½-6 cm; base cuneate, obtuse or rounded; apex abruptly acute or acute; nerves 6-9 pairs; veins and veinlets almost always distinctly elevated and densely reticulate on both surfaces; petiole 0.5-1 cm. Flowers usually in axillary as well as terminal 3-5-flowered cymes, these not unfrequently combined in axillary narrow racemes of cymes which may exceed the subtending leaf; peduncle very short sometimes up to 2.5 cm. Pedicels obsolete, or very short (0.5-1.5 mm), rarely up to 4 mm. Male: calyx lobes semi-orbicular, imbricate, obtuse, short-ciliate, sometimes erose, c. 1.5 mm long. Petals oblong or obovate, obtuse, glandular-ciliate, 2-5 by 1 1/3-2.5 mm. Disk cup-shaped, lobes usually deltoid, rarely slightly oblong, shortly acute, rounded, or slightly dentate. Stamens c. 2⅓ mm; filaments subulate, glabrous; anthers ovoid, obtuse, cordate. Sterile pistil ovoid, c. 1.5 mm long. Female: calyx lobes, petals, and disk as in the males, but the petals smaller. Sterile stamens c. 1.5 mm. Pistil flask-like, c. 2 mm long; ovary subglobose; style columnar; stigma 3-lobed. Fruits ovoid to subglobose; valves broadly-ovate or-elliptic, or suborbicular, 8-11 by 7-9 mm, usually 1-seeded. Seeds broad-ellipsoid, 5-8 by 5 mm, reddish-brown, smooth.

Chiefly in thickets, rarely in mossy forest, 1000-1800 m, only once at 550 m.