白花丹属 bai hua dan shu

Thela Loureiro.

Herbs (perennial or rarely annual), or rarely shrubs, sometimes lianous. Stems usually branched. Petiole base slightly expanded or auriculate, clasping or nearly clasping. Inflorescences spicate-racemose; spikelets 1-flowered; bracts and bractlets herbaceous, greenish. Flowers conspicuous. Pedicel very short, persistent. Calyx tubular, ribs herbaceous and with stalked glands, membranous between ribs; limb not expanded but enlarging after anthesis; lobes minute, usually triangular. Corolla salverform, tube much longer than calyx, limb rotate, lobes apically rounded or acuminate. Stamens hypogynous, as long as corolla tube; filaments basally expanded; anthers linear. Ovary ellipsoid, ovoid, or pyriform. Styles connate, terminally 5-branched; stigma on inner surface of style branches, covered with stalked or sessile glands.

About 17 species: mainly in tropics; two species in China.

Lower Taxa

• Plumbago auriculata Lam.
• Plumbago indica Linnaeus
• Plumbago zeylanica Linnaeus
• Plumbago zeylanica var. oxypetala Boissier
• Plumbago zeylanica var. zeylanica