石生紫草 shi sheng zi cao

Lithodora hancockianum (Oliver) Handel-Mazzetti; Lithospermum mairei H. Léveillé.

Herbs perennial. Stems usually solitary, erect, 5-15 cm tall; lower stems with persistent leaf bases, forming a chaffy stem sheath. Leaves crowded on stems, sessile, broadly linear or linear-lanceolate, 4-15 cm × 3-9 mm, white short strigose, abaxially more densely strigose and gray-white. Inflorescences crowded, frequently branched; bracts same shape as leaves, 1-2 cm. Calyx ca. 1.1 cm; lobes linear, short strigose outside. Corolla purple-red; tube straight, 1-2.2 cm, pubescent outside; throat unappendaged but usually with 5 longitudinal pleats; limb ca. 1.3 mm wide; lobes broadly ovate, ca. 6 mm, veins evident. Stamens attached at apex of corolla tube; anthers ca. 1.6 mm, apex obtuse or acute. Style ca. 4 mm, slightly surpassing anthers, ca. 4 mm, apex slightly inflated; stigma capitate. Nutlets brown or white, triangular-ovoid, ca. 3 mm, glabrous, slightly pitted, shiny, adaxially longitudinally keeled. Fl. and fr. Mar-Aug.

* Limestone slopes. W Guizhou, Yunnan.