台湾金粟兰 tai wan jin su lan

Herbs perennial, 25-40 cm high, smooth, glabrous. Stems erect; basal nodes with 1 pair of scalelike leaves. Leaves opposite, 4-clustered on stem apex and false-whorled; petiole 6-9 mm; leaf blade broadly elliptic, orbicular, or broadly ovate, 10-13 × 6-9 cm, papery, glandular mucronate, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin serrulate or sharply serrate, apex acuminate to long acuminate; lateral veins 5-7. Spikes arising from stem apex, racemosely branched; branches usually opposite, 9-15 cm with peduncles; peduncles 3.5-7 cm; bracts ovate or broadly triangular, ca. 1.2 mm, margin irregularly small dentate, with a few small, pale yellow dots. Flowers white. Stamens 3; connectives oblong or long elliptic, connate at base, on outside of apical part of ovary; central connective ca. 3 mm, with a 2-loculed anther; lateral connectives ca. 2 mm, with a 1-loculed anther each; thecae ca. 0.7 mm, at base of connective. Ovary obovoid, ca. 1.6 mm, with style ca. 0.7 mm; stigma several lobed. Drupes brown, obovoid or pyriform, 2-3 mm; stalk ca. 2.5 mm. Fl. Apr, fr. May. 2n = 30*.

* Forests, roadsides; 200-1000 m. Taiwan

The name Chloranthus serratus (Thunberg) Roemer & Schultes was misapplied to this species by Matsumara & Hayata (Enum. Pl. Formosan. 348. 1906).