荫生冷水花 yin sheng leng shui hua

Herbs perennial, stoloniferous, dioecious or monoecious. Stems erect, often branched, 20-50 cm tall, succulent distally, usually covered with multicellular hairs throughout. Stipules soon deciduous, brownish, narrowly ovate or oblong, ca. 5 mm, membranous; petiole unequal in length, 0.6-6.5 cm; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, broadly ovate, broadly elliptic, or suborbicular, slightly asymmetric, unequal in size, 3-12 × 2-9 cm, submembranous, 3-veined, lateral veins many, cystoliths minute, shortly fusiform, base obtuse to subcordate, margin coarsely dentate, apex short acuminate to caudate-acuminate, acumen untoothed. Inflorescences solitary, male one a widely branched, paniculate cyme, 10-16 cm overall, peduncle 6-10 cm; female inflorescence shorter than male one, shorter than petioles. Male flowers subsessile, in bud obovoid, ca. 0.8 mm; perianth lobes 4, connate at base, corniculate below apex, sparsely setose; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary minute. Female perianth lobes unequal, abaxial lobe hooded, 1/2 as long as achene, lateral 2 lobes triangular-ovate, much shorter, membranous. Achene ovoid, ca. 0.6 mm, compressed, oblique, thinner at margins, smooth, sometimes with an inconspicuously dotted colored ring enclosed by persistent perianth. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Shaded moist places in forests, near streams; 1500-2800 m. S Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal].