莛子藨 ting zi biao

Triosteum intermedium Diels & Graebner; T. rosthornii Diels & Graebner.

Herbs, perennial, to 60 cm tall, branched below terminal inflorescence after anthesis, hirsute and glandular hairy. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade ca. 11 × 10 cm, abaxially with domatia along main vein, adaxially sparsely hirsute, more densely so on veins and margin, base cuneate, pinnatifid to occasionally entire toward apex, deeply lobed to more than half width of leaf blade; lobes elliptic, acuminate. Inflorescence of 2 or 3 6-flowered whorls at apex of stem. Sepals ca. 2 mm. Corolla yellow-green, ca. 1 cm; lobes purple-brown with paler flecks; tube curved at base, glandular hairy. Drupe white, subglobose, ca. 12 mm, hirsute and glandular hairy, crowned with a persistent calyx. Pyrenes 3-5, without ribs. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = ca. 18*, 36.

Coniferous forests, sunny places on streamsides; 1800-2900 m. Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan [Japan].