''Ardisia humilis'' (jet berry) is a species of
flowering plant in the genus ''
Ardisia'' in the family
Primulaceae, native to southeastern
Asia in southern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
(
Guangdong,
Hainan), the
Philippines, and
Vietnam.
[Flora of China]
''Ardisia humilis''
/ref>
Description
''Ardisia humilis'' is an evergreen shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
growing 1–2 m (rarely to 5 m) tall. The leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are broad ovate to elliptical, 15–18 cm long and 5–7 cm broad, with a leathery texture and an acute apex. The flowers are reddish-purple to pink and 5–6 mm diameter; they are produced in corymbs in mid-spring. The fruit is a red to dark purple drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
6 mm diameter, containing a single seed, and it matures in late autumn.[
]
Status
''Ardisia humilis'' is considered to be included in the single variable species '' Ardisia elliptica'' by some botanists.[“Shoebutton ardisia: Ardisia elliptica” Weeds of Australia website, http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Ardisia_elliptica.htm (retrieved 28.2.2013)]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4788112
humilis
Taxa named by Martin Vahl