粗叶耳草 cu ye er cao

Oldenlandia verticillata Linnaeus, Mant. Pl. 1: 40. 1767; Hedyotis hispida Retzius; O. hispida (Retzius) Poiret.

Herbs, annual or perennial, diffusely branched, often decumbent, to 30 cm tall; stems flattened, subterete, or 4-angled and/or usually 2-sulcate, sparsely to densely hirtellous, hispidulous, and/or scaberulous. Leaves sessile to petiolate; petiole to 2 mm, scaberulous or hispidulous to glabrescent; blade drying papery or thinly leathery, narrowly elliptic or linear-lanceolate, 2.5-6 × 0.3-1.3(-2) cm, adaxially glabrous or scaberulous at least near margins, abaxially glabrous to densely hirtellous or hispidulous at least on midrib, base acute to obtuse, margins often revolute at least when dry, apex acute or acuminate; secondary veins not visible; stipules shortly fused to petiole bases, triangular to subtruncate, 1-3 mm, sparsely to densely hispidulous to hirtellous, with 5-9 linear lobes or bristles 1-8 mm. Inflorescences axillary, glomerulate to congested-cymose, 5-10 mm in diam., several flowered, moderately to densely hispidulous, sessile; bracts linear to lanceolate, 1-4 mm. Flowers sessile to subsessile, apparently homostylous (e.g., Anon. 788, MO). Calyx densely hispidulous; hypanthium portion obconical to subglobose, ca. 1 mm; limb lobed essentially to base; lobes lanceolate to triangular, 1-2 mm, ciliolate. Corolla white, funnelform, outside glabrous except lobes sometimes bearded at apex; tube ca. 2 mm, glabrous inside; lobes lanceolate, 1.8-2 mm. Anthers exserted, ca. 1 mm. Stigma ca. 0.3 mm. Fruit capsular, ovoid, 2-3 × 1.5-2 mm, loculicidal across top, with calyx lobes to 3 mm, with petioles to 1.5 mm; seeds numerous, pale brown, angled. Fl. and fr. Mar-Nov.

Tussocks or thickets on foothills, roadsides, sparse forests; 200-1600 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam].

As noted under Hedyotis tenelliflora, Spermacoce stricta may be a synonym of H. verticillata.

W. C. Ko (in FRPS 71(1): 42. 1999) described the leaves as up to 2 cm wide; this has not been reported by other authors nor seen on any specimens.