紫薇 zi wei

Lagerstroemia chinensis Lamarck; Murtughas indica (Linnaeus) Kuntze.

Shrubs or small trees, to 7 m tall. Branchlets slender, 4-angled or subalate, puberulous, glabrescent. Leaves sessile or with petiole to ca. 2 mm; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, obovate, or suborbicular, typically at least some suborbicular to obovate and mucronate, 2.5-7[-10] × 1.5-4 cm, papery to slightly leathery, glabrous or with slight indumentum on veins abaxially, lateral veins 3-7 pairs, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex acute, obtuse with small mucro, or retuse. Panicles subpyramidal, 7-20 cm, puberulous, densely flowered. Floral tube 6-merous, 7-11 mm, smooth walled or obscurely to decidedly 6-ribbed, glabrous; sepals 3.5-5.5 mm, adaxially glabrous; annulus present; epicalyx absent. Petals purple, fuchsia, pink, or white, orbicular, 1.2-2 cm including claw 6-9 mm. Stamens 36-42, dimorphic. Ovary glabrous. Capsules ellipsoidal, 1-1.3 × 0.7-1.2 cm, 4-6-valved. Seeds including wing ca. 8 mm. Fl. Jun-Sep, fr. Sep-Nov. 2n = 48, 50.

Semishaded places, rich fields, wild or cultivated. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; widely cultivated throughout these and other warm regions of the world].