颈果草 jing guo cao

Herbs annual. Stems branched from base, diffuse, fleshy, depressed, to 3 mm in diam., 3-5 cm tall. Petiole complanate, 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade spatulate, broadly elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 1-2 cm × 5-8 mm, abaxially sparsely short hispid, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Flowers solitary, axillary or extra-axillary. Pedicel short, to 2 cm in fruit. Calyx blue-green; lobes lanceolate, ca. 1.5 × 0.5 mm, to 2 × 1.2 mm in fruit, appressed pubescent above inside, sparsely pubescent or glabrous outside. Corolla purple-blue, campanulate-tubular; tube 0.8-1 mm; lobes suborbicular, ca. 0.5 mm; appendages transversely half elliptic, ca. 0.1 × 0.4 mm. Anthers ovate-triangular, ca. 0.3 mm. Gynobase flat. Nutlets dorsiventrally compressed, sparsely pubescent or glabrous, ca. 2 × 1.2 mm excluding marginal glochids, abaxial disc ovate; marginal glochids triangular, 0.8-1 mm, base confluent into a broad wing, apex anchorlike. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

* Sand flats along streams and marshes, alpine meadows, talus slopes near mountain summits, alluvial terraces; 4300-5000 m. Qinghai, Xizang.