丽江铁苋菜 li jiang tie xian cai

Deciduous shrubs, 1-3 m tall. Branchlets grayish pubescent when young; branches brownish, elongated, glabrous. Stipules lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 mm, pilose; petiole 0.4-2 cm, pilose; leaf blade oblong-ovate or subelliptic, 1.5-7 × 0.7-3.5 cm, papyraceous, both surfaces pilose, or adaxially pilose along midvein, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, margin serrate, apex acuminate; basal veins 3. Spike axillary, unisexual, rarely bisexual, slender, 2.5-4 cm, puberulent, peduncle ca. 5 mm; flowers entirely male, rarely base with 1 female flower; female inflorescence shorter, with 1(or 2) female bracts, peduncle ca. 5 mm, after flowering 1.5-2.5 cm, slender, puberulent; female bracts cordate or rounded-ovate, 10-12 mm, 7-15-dentate, pilose; male bracts loose, ovate, ca. 1 mm. Male flowers 5-7, fascicled; pedicel ca. 1 mm; sepals 4, ovate, ca. 1 mm, acute, glabrous; stamens 8. Female flower subsessile; sepals 3, ovate, ca. 1 mm, acute, puberulent; ovary densely hairy; styles 3, 2-3 mm, ca. 11-laciniate. Capsule 3-locular, ca. 3 mm in diam., pilose, sometimes scattered verruciform-setaceous. Seeds ovoid, ca. 2 mm, smooth. Fl. May-Aug.

● Mountain valleys or river ravines, springsides, thickets, forest margins; 1700-2800 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan [?N Thailand].