露柱百蕊草 lu zhu bai rui cao

Herbs; rhizomes brownish, rather thick, divaricate. Stems green, procumbent, sparsely branched, slender, ca. 15-20 cm, striate. Leaves sparse, subsessile, linear, 25-30 × 1-1.5 mm, usually 1-veined, apex acute. Inflorescences racemelike, few flowered; bract usually inserted at or near tip of pedicel or, sometimes in proximal portion of plant, at base, linear, 15-25 mm; bracteoles 2, subulate or linear, 4.5-6 mm, usually longer than flowers; pedicel slender, 3-5 mm, finely striate. Perianth white interior, 3-4 mm; tube subcampanulate, ca. 2 mm; lobes oblong to ovate, ca. 1 mm, apex obtuse, strongly incurved, adaxially hairy. Stamens 5, not exserted. Ovary stalk ca. 0.6 mm. Style terete, 4-4.5 mm; stigma compressed capitate. Nutlet broadly ellipsoid, ca. 3.5 × 3 mm, with 10 or more inconspicuous, sometimes slightly impressed, longitudinal veins, often branched but lacking connecting veins; persistent perianth incurved and shrunken. Fl. Jun, fr. Aug-Sep.

Grassy slopes; 2900-3700 m. Sichuan, Yunnan [NW India, Nepal].

The status of this taxon and the Chinese material so named needs further study; it is said to differ from other species by the exserted style, but this is present neither in the type material nor in the Chinese material examined.