长梗蛇根草 chang geng she gen cao

Herbs, apparently ascending, to 100 cm tall; stems drying flattened, densely pilosulous. Leaves in markedly unequal pairs; petiole 0.5-1(-3) cm, pilosulous; blade drying thinly papery, adaxially grayish green, abaxially pale or purple, ovate or elliptic, larger ones 3.5-7.5 × 2-3.2 cm, smaller ones 2-5 × 1.5-3 cm, glabrous adaxially, abaxially glabrous or pilosulous along veins, base cuneate, obtuse, or subrounded, ± inequilateral, margins subentire, apex obtuse; secondary veins 6-8 pairs; stipules caducous, not seen. Inflorescence cymose, 5-9-flowered, often rather lax, hispidulous to hirsute; peduncle 2-2.5 cm; axes helicoid, ca. 1 cm; bracteoles subulate, 2-3 mm. Flowers with biology unknown, subsessile. Calyx pilosulous or hispidulous; hypanthium turbinate, ca. 2.5 mm, 5-ribbed; lobes triangular, 1-1.3 mm, with 1 gland in each sinus. Corolla yellowish white or tinged with purple, funnelform, glabrous outside; tube ca. 16 mm, with pilose or pilosulous ring above middle inside; lobes ovate-triangular, 5-5.5 mm, dorsally thinly winged, apex rostrate. Capsules drying brownish red, mitriform-rhomboid, ca. 3 × 7 mm. Fl. Apr.

● Rocks in wet and shady places in forests. Guangxi.

The figure of this species presented by H. S. Lo in FRPS (71(1): 150, t. 36, f. 1-6. 1999) seems to be redrawn based on the protologue figure but differs a bit from it; in particular, the lower right-hand leaf is shown in FRPS as acute or shortly acuminate, while in the protologue figure this was shown as obtuse and there corresponded to the textual description. Neither the protologue nor FRPS posited the floral biology of this species; the flower described in the protologue resembles the short-styled form of distylous species, with the anthers positioned in or just below the corolla throat and the stigmas positioned just below the middle of the corolla tube.