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The "Nagami-bochoji" (Psychotria manillensis) belongs to Rubiaceae (the Madder family). It is a small evergreen tree that is distributed from the Tokara Islands of Kyushu south to the Okinawa Islands in Japan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. It grows in forests on limestone terrain and grows 1 to 3 m high. The leaves are narrowly elliptic to oblong and entire, and small greenish-white flowers bloom in cymes from the leaf axils from June to July. The fruit is an elliptic kernel about 1 cm long that ripens to a reddish berry in winter. In Taiwanese Chinese, it is called "琉球九節木".
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