紫苞爵床 zi bao jue chuang

Mananthes latiflora (Hemsley) C. Y. Wu & C. C. Hu.

Herbs or shrubs 50-100 cm tall, erect. Stems 4-angled, sulcate, sparsely pubescent. Petiole 1-3.5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade lanceolate, ovate, or subcircular, 6-10 × 2-3.5 cm, both surfaces hispid along veins, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, base cuneate to sometimes attenuate, margin entire, apex acuminate. Spikes terminal, 3.5-5.5 cm, densely flowered; bracts basally pale green and purplish red above middle, ovate to elliptic, 7-10 × 3-4 mm, abaxially puberulent, apex acuminate; bracteoles linear, 5-7 × ca. 1.5 mm, abaxially puberulent. Calyx 5-8 mm, outside puberulent, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear, apex acute. Corolla pale white with purplish red dots or stripes on lobes, ca. 1.5 cm, outside pubescent; tube ca. 1 cm; lower lip patent, broadly 3-lobed, lobes circular and ca. 1 mm in diam.; upper lip ca. 0.5 mm, broadly rounded and concave, apex emarginate. Staminal filaments glabrous; anther thecae superposed, lower one minutely spurred at base. Ovary glabrous; style glabrous. Capsule obovoid-clavate, 1-1.2 cm, glabrous. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 4 × 3.5 mm, rugose. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. May-Jun.

● Forests, streamsides; 600-1800 m. Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan.