龙胜梅花草 long sheng mei hua cao

Stems 5 or 6, 15-28 cm, with 1 leaf near middle or distally. Basal leaves often 6-8, forming a rosette; petiole slender, 9.5-13 cm; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, broadly orbicular, 2-3 × 2.7-4.5 cm, arcuate 7-9-veined with veins prominent abaxially and inconspicuous adaxially, base subcordate, apex concave and apiculate. Cauline leaf sessile, semiamplexicaul, similar to basal ones but smaller, base often with several rusty brown appendages sometimes connate into small lamellae. Flower 2-2.3 cm in diam.; hypanthium very short. Sepals reflexed and persistent after anthesis, densely purple punctate, oblong, 6-7 × 3-5 mm, midvein conspicuous, margin entire, apex obtuse, sometimes apiculate. Petals white, densely purple punctate, obovate-lanceolate, 1-1.2 cm × 4-5 mm, 3-5-veined, base attenuate, margin long fimbriate in proximal 2/3, undulate in distal 1/3. Anthers ellipsoid, ca. 2 mm; filaments ca. 7.5 mm; staminodes 4-5 mm, divided for up to 1/2 their length into 5 branches with globose glands at apex. Ovary slightly sunken into hypanthium, trigonous; style ca. 1.8 mm; stigma 3-lobed, lobes ovate. Capsule trigonous. Seeds brown, glossy, oblong. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov.

* Woods, moist places, rocks by streams. NE Guangxi (Longsheng Ge Zu Zizhixian, Xiang Xian).

In habit, this species somewhat resembles Parnassia dilatata, which differs in having smaller basal leaf blades, 1.2-2 × 1.4-2.5 cm, with shorter petioles, 2-4 cm, and flat, (3 or)4- or 5-lobed staminodes, with inconspicuous, globose glands at the apex.

WU Ding, GAO Lian-MIng, WANG Hong & LI De-zhu. (Acta Bot. Yunnan. 26: 628-630. 2004) treat this as a synonym of Parnassia dilatata Handel-Mazzetti.