丁香蓼 ding xiang liao

Jussiaea prostrata (Roxburgh) H. Léveillé.

Herbs erect, annual or short-lived perennial. Stems often red tinged, 10-60 cm tall, often branched, subglabrous. Petiole 4-25 mm; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 1-13 × 0.3-2.7 cm, glabrous or with few hairs on veins, lateral veins 8-12 per side, submarginal vein inconspicuous, base narrowly cuneate, apex acute. Sepals 4, deltate, 1.3-2.5 mm, glabrous. Petals yellow, narrowly spatulate, 1.3-2.2 mm. Stamens as many as sepals; filaments 0.4-0.6 mm; anthers 0.3-0.4 mm; pollen in tetrads. Style 0.8-1 mm; stigma globose. Capsule pale brown, subcylindric, slightly 4-angled, 1.2-2.2 cm, glabrous, thinly walled, readily and irregularly dehiscent, seeds clearly visible in outline through walls, sessile or pedicel to 1.5 mm. Seeds in one row per locule, free, pale brown with darker specks or transverse fine stripes, 0.5-0.6 mm, raphe narrow, inconspicuous. Fl. and fr. Jun-Nov. 2n = 16.

Wet sites such as rice paddies, flood plains, streamsides; near sea level to 800 m. Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka].