弯花马蓝 wan hua ma lan

Pteracanthus cyphanthus (Diels) C. Y. Wu & C. C. Hu.

Subshrubs 45-60 cm tall. Stems 4-angled. Petiole 2-5 cm; leaf blade ovate, 3-7 × 1.5-4.5 cm, both surfaces pilose, adaxially with numerous obscure cystoliths, secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, base decurrent onto petiole, margin serrate, apex acute. Inflorescences terminal or in apical leaf axils, subcapitate, dense, sessile or with peduncle to 5 mm, white pilose; outer sterile bracts leaflike; inner floral bracts elliptic, ca. 12 × 5 mm, white pilose, margin dentate and ciliate; bracteoles linear, ca. 16 × 1 mm, thinly pilose. Calyx 1-1.3 cm, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear, ca. 11 × 1 mm, subequal, thinly pilose. Corolla blue, 3-4 cm, strongly bent and ventricose, outside thinly pilose, inside pubescent on lobes and glabrous in tube except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and ca. 3 mm wide for ca. 1 cm then bent to ca. 90° at middle and widened to ca. 1.2 cm at mouth; lobes oblong, ca. 5 × 4 mm. Stamens 4, included; shorter filament pair ca. 2 mm, glabrous; longer filament pair ca. 3 mm, glabrous except for a few trichomes basally; anther thecae oblong, ca. 2 × 1-1.5 mm; pollen type 3. Ovary comose; style 2.7-3.2 cm, pubescent. Capsule ca. 1.4 cm, pilose at tip, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm, densely covered with appressed trichomes. Fl. Jul-Oct, fr. Nov-Dec.

● Mixed forests; 1200-3200 m. Gansu (Wenxian), Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan.

Strobilanthes curviflorus [sic!] C. B. Clarke (C. Y. Wu, Index Fl. Yunnan. 2: 1685. 1984) belongs here but was not validly published because it was merely cited as a synonym (Vienna Code, Art. 34.1(c)).