毛冠马蓝 mao guan ma lan

Herbs to 50 cm tall, perennial, slightly anisophyllous. Stems decumbent and basally rooting then ascending, 4-angled, sulcate, bifariously pilose. Leaves usually sessile or with a petiole to 3 mm; leaf blade ovate to suborbicular, 8-45 × 8-45 cm, both surfaces glabrous or pilose, abaxially whitish, adaxially green, secondary veins 5-7 on each side of midvein, base rounded to subcordate, margin entire or obscurely crenulate-serrate, apex acute to obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, spikes, 3-6 cm; bracts orbicular to obovate, 5-8 × 5-8 mm, persistent until flowers fall, pilose; bracteoles obovate, ca. 3 × 3 mm, pilose. Flowers ca. 2.5 cm apart basally on rachis but imbricate apically. Calyx 6-10 mm, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear-spatulate, margin ciliate. Corolla blue, 2.5-3 cm, outside pilose, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and ca. 3 mm wide for ca. 1 cm then bent to ca. 90º and abruptly widened to 8-10 mm at mouth; lobes broadly ovate, ca. 5 × 6-7 mm. Stamens 4, included; filaments subglabrous, shorter pair ca. 4 mm, longer pair ca. 7 mm; anther thecae oblong, ca. 2 × 1 mm; pollen type 16. Ovary gland-tipped; style ca. 2.5 cm, sparsely pilose, apically glabrous. Capsule ca. 1.2 cm, gland-tipped pilose, 4-seeded. Seeds orbicular in outline, ca. 3 × 3 mm, densely pilose; areola absent. Fl. Aug-Nov.

Wet places in forests; 1200-2100 m. Xizang (Cona) [Bhutan, India, Nepal].