Celastrus flagellaris Rupr.

A deciduous climber, with slender, hollow twining stems, ultimately 25 ft high; not downy, but armed with short, decurved, hooked spines, in pairs at each joint. Leaves rounded or oval, 3⁄4 to 21⁄4 in. long, from two-thirds to nearly as wide, the base broadly wedge-shaped, the apex abruptly pointed, the margin set with bristle-like teeth, both sides bright green, and smooth except for minute roughnesses on the veins beneath; stalk up to 11⁄4 in. long. Flowers small and green; short-stalked, one to three together, axillary on short twigs of the previous year. Capsules orange-yellow; seed-coat red; seeds ripe in October.

Native of Manchuria and Korea; known to botany since 1857, but only introduced to Kew in 1906. It has axillary flowers and fruit like C. orbiculatus, but its stems are more slender and crowded, and in a young state at least much more spiny. It is quite distinct from that and other species in the comparatively very long leaf-stalk. It fruits at Kew but is not so handsome as C. orbiculatus.