细梗耳草 xi geng er cao

Oldenlandia tenuipes (Hemsley) Kuntze.

Herbs or subshrubs, erect, perennial, to 50 cm tall; stems terete to weakly 4-angled, often flexuous, puberulent to glabrous. Leaves subsessile to petiolate; petiole to 2(-6) mm; blade drying papery, usually clear green, narrowly lanceolate, lanceolate, ovate, or lanceolate-elliptic, 2.5-9 × 0.7-3 cm, both surfaces glabrous except densely puberulent on midrib adaxially, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 3 or 4 pairs but usually indistinct; stipules fused to petiole bases, triangular, ovate, or subtruncate, 1-3 mm, densely puberulent, acute to acuminate, marginally entire, serrulate, or occasionally glandular-erose. Inflorescences terminal and often axillary and/or pseudoaxillary in uppermost leaf axils, cymose to paniculate, 4-18 cm, glabrous, several to many flowered, pedunculate; peduncle 0.5-2 cm; axes slender, flexuous, spreading at up to 90°; bracts linear to narrowly triangular, 1-5 mm; pedicels 4-15 mm. Flowers all pedicellate, apparently monomorphic. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium portion turbinate to ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm; limb lobed for 2/3-3/4; lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm. Corolla white, sometimes tinged pink to purple, funnelform, outside glabrous, inside densely barbate in throat and throughout lobes; tube 1.5-3 mm; lobes lanceolate to spatulate, 3-4 mm, acute to acuminate. Anthers partially to fully exserted, ca. 1.5 mm. Stigma 0.1-0.2 mm, exserted by 3-4 mm. Fruit capsular, ovoid to ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous, smooth, septicidally then loculicidally dehiscent; seeds numerous, black, angled. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jun-Nov.

● Sandy lands, barren soil in sparse forests; 200-1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan.

This species is similar to Hedyotis matthewii and H. mellii and is perhaps separated here somewhat differently from other authors (e.g., W. C. Ko in FRPS 71(1): 52. 1999). The pedicel measurements here are for flowers at anthesis and fruit; the pedicels subtending flower buds are much shorter and apparently elongate rapidly as the buds mature.