西南新耳草 xi nan xin er cao

Hedyotis wightiana Wallich ex Wight & Arnott, Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient. 1: 410. 1834; Anotis wightiana (Wallich ex Wight & Arnott) J. D. Hooker.

Herbs, perennial, mostly procumbent and rooting at nodes; stems angled to subterete, sometimes sulcate, glabrous to hirtellous or hirsute at least near nodes. Leaves sessile or petiolate; petiole to 4 mm, hirtellous to glabrescent; blade drying papery to subleathery, ovate to lanceolate, 0.5-1.8(-2.5) × 0.3-1.2 (-1.8) cm, adaxially sparsely to moderately puberulent, scaberulous, or scabrous at least on midrib and margins, abaxially glabrous except hirtellous on midrib and sometimes principal veins, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, apex acute to obtuse; secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs; stipules rounded to triangular, ca. 1 mm, hirtellous or pilosulous, erose to pectinate or with 1-7 bristles or linear lobes 0.2-2 mm, often glandular. Inflorescences capitate to congested-cymose, terminal or pseudoaxillary at upper nodes on principal stems and short lateral stems, several flowered, sessile or with peduncle to 1 cm; bracts reduced. Flowers sessile or subsessile. Calyx glabrous to puberulent; hypanthium portion obconic to turbinate, ca. 1 mm; limb divided to base; lobes triangular, 1-1.5 mm, entire to ciliolate. Corolla white or rarely pale red, tubular to tubular-funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 1.3-2.5 mm, inside glabrous; lobes 0.2-1.5 mm, obtuse to acute. Capsule compressed globose, 1.5-2 × 1.5-2.5 mm, often markedly dicoccous, glabrous, smooth. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Oct.

Grassy slopes, roadsides, banks at streamsides; 900-1900 m. Guangxi (Damiao Shan), Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan (Pingbian) [Bhutan, India, Vietnam].

The inflorescences were described by W. C. Ko (in FRPS 71(1): 84. 1999) as usually having two leaflike bracts, but here these structures are considered leaves subtending the inflorescence, similarly to the morphological interpretation by Mill (Fl. Bhutan 2(2): 770-771. 1999); these leaves are small when the flowers form but enlarge to the size of the other vegetative leaves as the fruit develop.