菱叶铁苋菜 ling ye tie xian cai

Acalypha evrardii Gagnepain.

Shrubs, 1-2 m tall. Branchlets puberulent when young; branches glabrous. Leaves alternate or subfascicled; stipules triangular, chartaceous, 1.5-3 mm; petiole 2-8 mm, pilose; leaf blade rhombic or ovate-rhombic, 2-6 × 1-3 cm, chartaceous, glabrous, base cuneate, margin crenate, proximal half subentire, apex obtuse; venation pinnate. Spike axillary, commonly bisexual, 1.5-5 cm, slender; peduncle subsessile or ca. 2 mm, puberulent; base with 2 or 3 female flowers, distally with male flowers, sometimes entirely male; female bracts subreniform, ca. 6 mm, ca. 11-denticulate; male bracts ovate, 0.5-1 mm, pilose. Male flowers 5-9, fascicled; pedicel ca. 0.5 mm; sepals 4, ca. 0.5 mm; stamens 8. Female flowers subsessile, solitary; sepals 3, ovate, ca. 1 mm; ovary densely with echinate hairs; style 2-3 mm, 7- or 8-laciniate. Capsule 3-locular, ca. 4 mm in diam., softly echinate, ca. 2 mm. Seeds ovoid, 2.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug.

Dry thickets; below 100 m. Fujian (cultivated), W Hainan [Laos, Malaysia (peninsular), S Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].