Buxus harlandii Hance

Shrubs small, 0.5-1 m tall; branchlets subtetragonous; young branches subtetragonous, slender, ca. 1 mm in diam., sparsely pubescent; internode 1-2 cm. Petiole not obvious; leaf blade spatulate, rarely narrowly oblong, 20-35(-40) × 5-8(-9) mm, thinly leathery, adaxially shiny, puberulent along basal part of midrib, base cuneate, apex acute, rounded to obtuse, or with retuse tip; midrib elevated on both surfaces, lateral veins and veinlets dense and visible adaxially, obscure abaxially. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, capitate, dense; rachis 3-4 mm; bracts ovate, mucronate. Male flowers 8-10; pedicels ca. 1 mm; tepals broadly ovate or broadly elliptic, ca. 2 mm. Female flowers: tepals broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm, margins scarious; ovary glabrous; style longer than ovary, erect, compressed and broad at lower part; stigma obcordate, decurrent to ca. 1/4 length of style. Capsule subglobose, ca. 7 mm, smooth; persistent style ca. 3 mm, apex slightly recurved. Fl. May, fr. Oct.

● Forests, streamsides. Offshore islands of Guangdong, Hainan.