Polygala globulifera Dunn

Shrubs 0.8-2.5 m tall. Branchlets glabrous or pubescent. Petiole ca. 1 cm, pubescent; leaf blade green, obovate or elliptic, (10-)15-19 × 5.5-7 cm, membranous or thinly papery, nearly glabrous but pubescent on veins on both surfaces, midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, raised abaxially, anastomosing near margin, veinlets reticulate, flat, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin entire, minutely ciliate, apex acuminate. Racemes terminal or opposite to leaves, 6-12 cm or 35-40 cm, very shortly pubescent or glabrous. Flowers dense. Pedicel 8-12 mm, glabrous or pubescent; bracts 3, caducous, lanceolate. Sepals 5, unequal, ciliate, caducous at anthesis; outer sepals 3, small, upper one saccate, 7-8 mm, lateral sepals ovate, 3-4 × ca. 3 mm; inner sepals 2, petaloid, obliquely obovate, large, 1.1-1.4 cm × ca. 7 mm. Petals 3, connate in lower 2/5; lateral petals obliquely oblong, ca. 1 cm, apex rounded; keel ca. 1.2 cm, apex with fan-shaped, lobed, revolute, globose appendages. Stamens 8; filaments ca. 1.1 cm, lower 2/3 united, forming an open staminal sheath adnate with petals; anthers oblong. Disk annular. Ovary broadly ovoid, ca. 2 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., winged, ciliate; style 8-10 mm, thin, apically slightly thickening, curved, apex shallowly 2-lobed; stigma on lower lobe. Capsule red, reniform, ca. 8 mm, ca. 1.2 cm in diam., margin broadly winged, apex depressed, mucronate, wing with transverse veins, carpels with concentric ribs. Seeds globose, ca. 6 mm in diam., glabrous; strophiole ca. 1/2 as long as seed. Fl. Aug-Oct, fr. Oct-Nov.

SE Xizang, Yunnan [N India, Myanmar].

Sparse forests, forest margins, shrub forests on mountain slopes; 1000-1500 m.