南湖大山猪殃殃 nan hu da shan zhu yang yang

Galium maborasense Masamune.

Herbs, perennial, erect, often reduced, 5-12(-20) cm tall. Stems 4-angled, sparsely to moderately pilose becoming glabrescent, angles thickened. Leaves in whorls of 4, sessile to subsessile; blade drying membranous, ovate, elliptic, or broadly lanceolate, 4-10 × 2-5 mm, length/breadth index 2-3, both surfaces sparsely hirsute at least along midrib, base cuneate to obtuse, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes apiculate; principal vein 1, 2 lateral veins weakly developed. Inflorescences terminal and in upper leaf axils, with cymes 2- to several flowered, 2-16 mm, shorter to somewhat longer than subtending leaves; peduncles glabrescent, bracteate; pedicels 0.8-4 mm. Flowers hermaphroditic. Ovary obovoid, ca. 0.5 mm, densely appressed hairy. Corolla white, rotate, 2-2.5 mm in diam., lobed for 1/2-2/3; lobes 4, ovate. Fruit on pedicels becoming deflexed to nodding; mericarps obloid to oblate, 0.8-1 mm, densely grayish yellow hairy with straight or slightly curved trichomes ca. 0.8 mm. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Under shrubs and in rock crevices; 3000-3500 m. Taiwan (Hualian, Nantou, Yilan).

Galium nankotaizanum is closely related to a group of species described from the high mountains of Taiwan (see under G. morii). Galium maborasense, treated as a separate but dubious species by W. C. Chen (in FRPS 71(2): 284. 1999), was explicitly synonymized by Yang and Li (Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Taichung 11: 107. 1998) with G. nankotaizanum. This publication apparently was not available to Chen, but here we follow these Taiwanese authors.

Galium nankotaizanum is mainly characterized by its straight or slightly curved fruit trichomes. This links it to the high-alpine Himalayan group of G. serpylloides s.l. (see there). Otherwise, G. nankotaizanum also appears similar to taxa with hooked fruit trichomes, e.g., G. tarokoense, with glabrous stems and only 1 principal leaf vein, from which it apparently differs by larger flowers.