海南铁苋菜 hai nan tie xian cai

Shrubs, ca. 2 m tall. Branchlets appressed puberulent when young; branches brownish, pilose. Stipules narrowly triangular; petiole 5-12 mm, appressed pilose; leaf blade elliptic or subrhombic-oblong, 3.5-7.5 × 1.5-3 cm, lightly papyraceous, both surfaces pilose, base cuneate, margin crenate, apex obtuse; venation pinnate, lateral veins ca. 5 pairs. Spike axillary, bisexual or unisexual, 5-8 cm, slender; peduncle ca. 5 mm, puberulent; base with 1 female flower, distally with male flowers or entirely male, or female inflorescence abbreviated, only 1 flower, peduncle ca. 2 mm; female bracts suborbicular, 7-8 × ca. 10 mm, 5- or 6-denticulate, ciliate; male bracts subovate, ca. 0.5 mm. Male flowers 17-21, glomerate; pedicel ca. 1 mm; sepals 4, glabrous; stamens 8. Female flower subsessile; sepals 3; ovary hairy; style 3-4 mm, laciniate. Capsule 3-locular, ca. 3 mm in diam., sparsely shortly echinate, pilose. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.

● Streamsides, ravine thickets; below 100 m. S Hainan.