皿果草 min guo cao

Trigonotis cupulifera I. M. Johnston, J. Arnold Arbor. 33: 69. 1952.

Stems usually single, erect to prostrate, rarely branched, 20-40 cm tall, sparsely short strigose. Petiole 0.5-4 cm; leaf blade elliptic-ovate to narrowly elliptic, 1.5-4 × 1-2.3 cm, short strigose, base broadly cuneate, apex obtuse, mucronate. Cymes to 18 cm in fruit. Pedicel 1-3.5 mm. Calyx lobes oblong, ca. 2 mm, to 3.5 mm in fruit, pubescent. Corolla light blue or light purple-red, ca. 2.5 mm, glabrous; throat appendages lunate; limb ca. 4 mm wide; lobes spreading, broadly ovate to suborbicular, ca. 1.8 mm. Anthers oblong, ca. 0.7 mm. Style ca. 0.7 mm. Nutlets light yellow-brown, 0.8-1 mm, smooth, shiny; cupular emergence of abaxial surfaces, ca. 1.5 in diam., ca. 0.8 mm high. Fl. and fr. May-Jul.

* Forests, hillside meadows, margins of rice fields, along streams, wet places at forest margins, thickets; ca. 100 m. Anhui, N Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.