Echium connatum H. Léveillé; Triosteum erythrocarpum Harry Smith; T. fargesii Franchet; T. himalayanum var. chinense Diels & Graebner.
Herbs, perennial, 40-60 cm tall, branched below terminal inflorescence after anthesis, densely hirsute, glandular hairy, faintly aromatic. Leaves obovate-elliptic to obovate-oblong, ca. 11 × 7 cm, abaxially long hirsute on veins, interspersed with glandular hairs, adaxially densely long hirsute, lower part narrowed to a broadly perfoliate base, margin entire or occasionally lobed, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescence of 2-5 whorls, at apex of stem. Sepals to 1 mm. Corolla lobes purple-brown with paler flecks; tube yellow-green, ca. 1.5 cm, outside glandular hairy; tube curved at base and shallowly spurred, spur pointing downward to below apex of ovary. Drupe ripening from white to red, subglobose, 10-12 mm in diam., hirsute and glandular hairy, crowned with a persistent calyx. Pyrenes 3-5, without ribs. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep.
Mountain slopes, coniferous forests, streamsides, grasslands; 1800-4100 m. ?Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal].
The names Triosteum hirsutum Wallich and T. hirsutum Roxburgh have sometimes been applied to this species. Some confusion has arisen from different print versions of Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 180. 1824. The original descriptions of T. himalayanum Wallich and T. hirsutum Roxburgh can be found in only one of these print versions. The other print version includes the description of T. hirsutum Wallich, which appears to be a printing error. Triosteum hirsutum Roxburgh is attributed to a specimen collected in Chittagong, Bangladesh, now the basionym of Lasianthus hirsutus in the Rubiaceae (see p. 192).
