心叶蛇根草 xin ye she gen cao

Herbs, procumbent to creeping; stems densely brown villous with multicellular trichomes. Leaves in subequal pairs; petiole 0.8-1.7 cm, densely brownish red villous; blade drying papery, adaxially grayish black, abaxially brownish, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 3.5-6 × 2.3-4 cm, subglabrous or sparsely pilose adaxially, villous abaxially along principal veins, base cordate, margins sparsely ciliate, apex obtuse then abruptly shortly acute; secondary veins 5-7 pairs; stipules caducous, not seen. Inflorescence congested-cymose, 4-8-flowered, brownish red villous; peduncle ca. 1 cm; axes reduced; bracts elliptic-oblong, 3.5-6 mm, ciliate. Flowers with breeding biology unknown, subsessile. Calyx subglabrous; hypanthium turbinate, ca. 2 mm, 10-ribbed; lobes triangular, ca. 0.5 mm, obtuse or perhaps acute. Corolla white, tubular-funnelform, glabrous outside; tube 11-12 mm, inside glabrous except with villous ring at middle; lobes triangular, ca. 2.2 mm, dorsally narrowly winged and with very short horn, apex rostrate. Capsules unknown. Fl. Apr.

● Forests. Guangxi (Napo).

Neither the original description (H. S. Lo, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 10(2): 55. 1990, not validly published) nor FRPS (71(1): 154-156. 1999) described the floral biology of this species; the flowers described resemble the long-styled form of distylous species, with the anthers positioned near the middle of the corolla tube and the stigmas in the corolla throat.