疏花耳草 shu hua er cao

Hedyotis acuminatissima Merrill; Oldenlandia matthewii (Dunn) Chun.

Herbs or subshrubs, erect, perennial, branched, to 75 cm tall; stems terete to 4-angled, glabrous. Leaves subsessile to petiolate; petiole to 8 mm, glabrous; blade drying papery to subleathery, narrowly elliptic, elliptic, or lanceolate, 3.5-12 × 0.8-3 cm, glabrous, base acute to obtuse, apex acute to long acuminate; secondary veins ca. 3 pairs but indistinct; stipules fused to petiole bases, broadly triangular to ovate-triangular, 2-4.5 mm, glabrous, sometimes costate, marginally entire to glandular-serrulate, acute to acuminate and sometimes thickened at apex. Inflorescences terminal and usually also in axils of uppermost leaves, cymose, paniculate, or racemiform, 6-12 × 1.5-7 cm, glabrous, several to many flowered, sessile and apparently tripartite or pedunculate; peduncles 1-4 cm; axes mostly dichotomous; bracts linear-lanceolate, 1-7 mm; pedicels 0.5-4 mm. Flowers subsessile to pedicellate, distylous. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium turbinate or obovoid, 1-1.5 mm; limb 1.5-2.2 mm, lobed for 1/2 to deeply lobed; lobes lanceolate to triangular. Corolla white or purplish, funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 3.5-4 mm, inside pubescent in throat; lobes triangular, 2-3 mm, inside puberulent. Anthers included or exserted, 0.8-1 mm. Stigmas included or exserted, 0.5-1 mm. Fruit capsular, ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm, crustaceous to cartilaginous, smooth, glabrous, septicidally then loculicidally dehiscent; seeds numerous, black, angled. Fl. Mar-Nov, fr. May-Jul.

● Dense forests or thickets on mountains; 100-300 m. Guangdong.

The circumscription here of this species and in particular its separation from Hedyotis mellii differs somewhat from that of some previous authors but provides a more consistent separation of it from H. mellii and H. cantoniensis.