藏南百蕊草 zang nan bai rui cao

Thesium dokerlaense C. Y. Wu ex D. D. Tao.

Herbs perennial; rhizomes long, slender. Stems procumbent to ascending, usually unbranched or sparsely branched, slender, 5-15 cm, usually inconspicuously ridged. Leaves sparse, concolor, sometimes dirty greenish, sessile, oblong, ca. 10 × 1.5-2 mm, 1-veined, margin entire. Inflorescences racemelike, with solitary flowers; bracts inserted at pedicel base, connate ca. 1/4 length, leaflike, 10-15 mm; pedicel slender, 5-8 mm; bracteoles 2, narrowly oblong, 4-6 mm, longer than flower, margin very minutely serrulate, almost entire. Perianth with exterior greenish yellow or pale green, interior white, narrowly funnelform to subtubular, 5.5-6.5 mm, tube campanulate, divided from middle to near base, lobes oblong, apex acute, becoming incurved after anthesis. Stamens 5, not exserted. Ovary stalk ca. 1.5 mm; stigma capitate, ca. 2 times as wide as style. Nutlet pale yellow, ellipsoid, ca. 3 mm, with longitudinal veins; persistent perianth subterete, ca. 2 mm.

Valleys, thickets; ca. 4200 m. Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Nepal].

The distinction between this species and Thesium tongolicum is very subtle, and it may prove best to combine the two species.