厚叶拉拉藤 hou ye la la teng

Herbs, perhaps perennial, ascending, ca. 10 cm tall. Stems 4-angled, caespitose, glabrous and smooth or sparsely puberulent. Leaves in whorls of 4, sessile or subsessile; blade drying leathery, elliptic or ovate, 3-8 × 2-4 mm, scabrous with microhairs, base cuneate or subobtuse, margins antrorsely ciliolate, apex obtuse and mucronate; vein 1. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, cymose, few flowered, up to 1 cm; axes glabrous and smooth, somewhat bracteate; pedicels ca. 1 mm. Flowers unknown. Mericarps ovoid, 0.5-1 mm, with appressed, slightly curved microhairs, ca. 0.3 mm. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Oct.

● Valleys, open habitat; ca. 800 m. Shanxi (Zhenba).

We have seen no authentic material of Galium crassifolium, but the original description is accompanied by a good drawing. In the protologue similarities with the Taiwanese G. tarokoense are suggested. Both species are distantly related, but apparently G. crassifolium falls within the morphological amplitude of the polymorphic G. bungei. Its distinctness with respect to reduced plants from dry habitats should be checked in the future.