Eleutherococcus brachypus (Harms) Nakai

Shrubs, to ca. 2 m tall. Branches with few, short, recurved prickles at nodes, rarely unarmed. Petioles to 7 cm at bases of branches, gradually shorter apically; leaves nearly sessile toward apices of branches; petiolules very short, glabrous; leaflets 3-5, obovate-oblong to rhombic, 3-6 × 1-2.5 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, secondary veins 3-5 pairs, base cuneate, margin entire or rarely with few teeth apically, apex rounded to obtuse. Inflorescence terminal, a simple or compound umbel, borne on leafy shoots, with 1-4 umbels; peduncles ca. 2 cm; pedicels 1-1.5 cm, glabrous. Calyx with 5 teeth, glabrous, rarely slightly pubescent. Corolla greenish. Ovary 5-carpellate; styles united into a column. Fruit subglobose, ca. 5 mm; styles persistent, ca. 2 cm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi.

● Scrub fields, roadsides on mountain slopes; 1000-2000 m.

Acanthopanax brachypus Harms, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 36 (Beibl. 82): 80. 1905; A. obovatus G. Hoo; Eleutherococcus brachypus var. omeiensis C. H. Kim & B. Y. Sun; E. obovatus (G. Hoo) H. Ohashi.