盾叶冷水花 dun ye leng shui hua

Herbs perennial, rhizomatous, glabrous, dioecious or monoecious. Stems greenish, erect, often simple, 5-27 cm tall, succulent, internodes 1-4 cm. Leaves crowded on upper nodes; stipules persistent, triangular, ca. 1 mm, membranous; petiole subequal in length, 0.6-4.5 cm; leaf blade blue-green, suborbicular or subcordate, peltate, subequal in size, 1-4.5(-7) × 1-3.5(-4) cm, succulent, papery when dry, 3-veined, lateral veins 3 or 4 on each side, inconspicuous, external secondary veins 5-7, indistinct on both surfaces, often glanduar punctate at terminal veins, finely honeycombed abaxially, cystoliths fusiform, often conspicuous adaxially, base cordate, rounded or truncate, margin shallowly undulate-crenate, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescences solitary, in upper nodes, male a moniliform spike, 3-4 cm overall, peduncle 1-1.7 cm; female ones 1-2.5 cm (including peduncle 0.5-1 cm); bracts lanceolate, ca. 0.4 mm. Male flowers light yellow-green, pedicellate or sessile, in bud obovoid, ca. 1.5 mm; perianth lobes 4, obovate, connate at base, subapically strongly corniculate; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary oblong. Female perianth lobes unequal, largest lobe cymbiform, 1/2 as long as achene. Achene obliquely ovoid, ca. 0.6 mm, slightly compressed, smooth, with an inconspicuously colored puncticulate ring, enclosed by persistent perianth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov.

* Shaded moist places in forests, thickets; 100-500 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, S Hunan.