竹山淫羊藿 zhu shan yin yang huo

Herbs, 40-60 cm tall. Rhizome short, stout. Flowering stem brown, terete, squamate at base, with 2 opposite leaves. Leaves simple, basal and cauline; petiole 5.5-6 cm, tomentose at base and apex; leaf blade adaxially deep green, oblong to suborbicular, 10-14 × 7-11 cm, abaxially densely sericeous-tomentose, adaxially glabrous, base deeply cordate, with rounded lobes subequal, margin slightly repand or irregularly denticulate, apex obtuse. Racemes usually many loosely flowered, ca. 30 cm, glandular. Pedicel 1.5-5 cm, slender; bracts ovate, ca. 2 mm. Flowers purple. Sepals 4 in 1 whorl, petaloid, ovate-lanceolate, 9-11 × ca. 3.5 mm, apex obtuse. Petals 4, purple, saccate, ca. 1.7 cm, base cucullate, apex long attenuate. Stamens 4, ca. 4 mm; filaments flat, shorter than anthers; anthers valved, valves revolute, apex of anther connective apiculate. Style 2.5-3 mm; stigma slightly quadrilobate or inconspicuous. Fruit unknown. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. unknown.

● Forests, roadsides; ca. 1200 m. NW Hubei.