须弥冷水花 xu mi leng shui hua

Herbs, perennial, or subshrubs, stoloniferous, glabrous, dioecious, rarely monoecious. Stems gray green, erect, ascending, or scandent, often branched, longitudinally several angled when dry, to 2.5 m tall, woody at base, densely covered with cystoliths. Stipules deciduous, oblong, 1.5-2 mm, herbaceous; petiole unequal in length, 4-10 cm; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or elliptic-ovate, unequal in size, 9-17 × 4.5-10 cm, membranous, 3-veined, lateral veins many, subtransverse, reticulate, cystoliths conspicuous adaxially, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin coarsely crenate-serrate, apex caudate-acuminate, acumen serrulate. Inflorescences solitary; male inflorescence a globose capitate raceme, ca. 0.5 cm in diam., shorter than petiole; female ones cymose-paniculate, much shorter, 1-2 cm. Male flowers sessile, in bud ca. 1 mm; perianth lobes 4; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary small, subulate. Female flowers subsessile, in bud ca. 0.6 mm; perianth lobes connate at base, unequal, abaxial lobe cymbiform, longer, subapically corniculate; staminodes 3, inconspicuous, scale-like, oblong. Achene brownish, ovoid, ca. 1 mm, compressed, with 2 or 3 concentric rings of minute tubercles Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Oct-Nov.

4Warm wide-leaved forests, shaded wet places by streams, near streams; 1200-1800 m. NW Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal, Sikkim].

This species is here newly recorded for China.