短裂玉叶金花 duan lie yu ye jin hua

Shrubs to 1.5 m tall; branches terete, ferruginous tomentose. Leaves opposite; petiole 1-5 mm, tomentulose; blade drying stiffly papery, long elliptic to broadly elliptic, 5.5-10 × 3.5-5 cm, adaxially sparsely strigillose with pubescence denser along veins, abaxially pale tomentose along veins with indument grayish white and brownish, base obtuse, apex acuminate or acute; secondary veins 7 or 8 pairs; stipules triangular-ovate, 4-5 mm, deeply 2-lobed, lobes triangular-subulate. Inflorescence cymose to corymbiform, densely flowered to rather lax, ca. 4.5 × 7-8 cm, brown tomentose, pedunculate; bracts subulate, 3-5 mm, acute; pedicels 1-2 mm. Flowers sessile or pedicellate. Calyx tomentose; hypanthium portion ellipsoid to turbinate, 1.5-2.5 mm; lobes lanceolate or triangular-linear, ca. 2 mm, sometimes 1 lobe on 1 flower per inflorescence expanded into calycophyll, blade elliptic, 3-4 × 1-2 cm, both surfaces pubescent with pubescence denser along veins, base acute, stipe ca. 6 mm, apex acute or obtuse. Corolla pale yellow, externally densely tomentulose to strigose; tube ca. 12.8 mm, with clavate hairs in throat; lobes triangular, ca. 2.2 mm, acuminate. Berry unknown. Fl. Apr.

Roadsides in mountain forests; ca. 1300 m. Yunnan [Thailand].

This species was described from Thailand, and characters from there are added to the description here. H. H. Hsue and H. Wu (in FRPS 71(1): 291. 1999) described the corolla tubes as 20-23 mm, which would make this species very similar to Mussaenda laxiflora, but the protologue described them as ca. 12.8 mm.