广西紫麻 guang xi zi ma

Shrubs, 1-3 m tall; branchlets black, zigzagged; branchlets and petioles minutely strigillose. Stipules lanceolate, 0.3-0.4 cm; petiole 0.5-2 cm; leaf blade abaxially green or light blue green, adaxially dark or blue green, narrowly elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 2-11 × 1-4 cm, stiffly papery, 3-veined, basal-lateral pair reaching apex, secondary veins 2-3 pairs, indistinct, both surfaces glabrous, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, margin entire or sparsely and inconspicuously crenate-serrulate distally, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences in axils of both new and older branches, often dichotomously branched 3 times, 0.5-0.8 cm; glomerules 3-4 mm in diam. Male flowers: perianth lobes 3, ca. 1 mm; rudimentary ovary clavate. Female flowers ca. 1.5 mm. Achene black, ovoid, compressed, 1.5-2 mm, apex truncate, surrounded by a fleshy cupule to middle. Fl. Oct-Mar, fr. May-Oct.

* Thickets, mountains on limestone; ca. 800 m. NW Guangxi, S Guizhou.