银脉爵床 yin mai jue chuang

Codonacanthus albonervosa (Hosokawa) Yuen P. Yang.

Herbs to 40 cm tall. Stems hirsute. Petiole 3-15 mm; leaf blade ovate to orbicular-ovate, 0.7-4.5 × 0.7-2.5 cm, membranous, both surfaces pilose, abaxially slightly paler, adaxially green, secondary veins 3-5 pairs on each side of midvein, prominent, and white, base broadly cuneate, margin remotely undulate to entire, apex obtuse to acuminate. Spikes to 4 cm, simple or branched into a panicle, few flowered; rachis gland-tipped pilose; bracts linear to oblanceolate, 2-3 × ca. 1 mm, abaxially gland-tipped pilose, adaxially glandular punctate. Flowers sessile; bracteoles linear, ca. 2 × 0.8 mm, abaxially gland-tipped pilose, adaxially glandular punctate. Calyx ca. 4 mm, outside gland-tipped pilose, inside glandular punctate, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear, outside pubescent, margin ciliate. Corolla white, ca. 5 mm, outside glabrous, inside slightly puberulent on throat; tube basally cylindric for 2.5-3 mm then slightly enlarged into a throat; lobes of lower lip obovate-elliptic, spreading, apex obtuse; lobes of upper lip erect, concave. Staminal filaments ca. 1 mm, glabrous; anther thecae ca. 0.8 mm. Ovary oblong-ellipsoid, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous, with 2 ovules per locule; style filiform, ca. 4 mm, glabrous; stigma minutely 2-cleft. Capsule and seeds unknown. Fl. Apr, Aug.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 600-700 m. Taiwan.

Kudoacanthus albonervosa is known from few collections (but collected as recently as 2002) and remains poorly characterized. Its pollen is described as 3-porate (C. F. Hsieh & T. C. Huang, Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 4: 669. 1998).