光叶丰花草 guang ye feng hua cao

Borreria assurgens (Ruiz & Pavon) Grisebach; B. remota (Lamarck) Bacigalupo & E. L. Cabral; Spermacoce assurgens Ruiz & Pavon.

Herbs, perennial, or subshrubs, ascending to erect, to 65 cm tall; stems subterete to subquadrate, sulcate and/or ridged, glabrous or ciliolate on angles. Leaves sessile to petiolate; petiole to 3 mm, glabrescent; blade drying papery, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, 10-45 × 4-16 mm, puberulent to glabrescent, base acute to cuneate, apex acute; secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs; stipules puberulent or hirtellous to glabrescent, sheath 1-3 mm, with 5-7 bristles 0.5-2 mm. Inflorescences terminal and in uppermost leaf axils, 5-12 mm in diam., many flowered; bracts numerous, filiform, 0.5-1 mm. Calyx puberulent or hirtellous to glabrescent; hypanthium portion obovoid, ca. 0.5 mm; lobes 4, narrowly triangular to linear, 0.8-1 mm. Corolla white, funnelform, outside glabrous or puberulent on lobes; tube 0.5-1.5 mm, pubescent in throat; lobes triangular, 1-1.5 mm. Capsules ellipsoid, weakly to strongly flattened at right angles to septum, 1.8-2 × 1-1.2 mm, hirtellous or puberulent, papery, septicidal from apex with valves usually remaining connected at base, then both valves loculicidal through septum and often splitting abaxially; seeds brownish yellow, ellipsoid, 1.5-1.8 × 0.8-1 mm, obtuse at both ends, somewhat shiny, transversely ruminate-rugose with irregular deep grooves. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jan.

Naturalized in disturbed wet sites; below 100-300 m. Guangdong, Taiwan [apparently native to the Neotropics; India, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Antilles, Australia, Central America, Indian Ocean islands (Mauritius), North America (Mexico), Pacific islands, N South America].

This widely naturalized species was reported from Taiwan by Chaw and Peng (J. Taiwan Mus. 40(1): 71-83. 1987), who noted that it has been widely misidentified as "Borreria laevis," but that name applies to a distinct Asian species of restricted range. The seeds of this species were illustrated by Chaw and Sivarajan (Bot. Bull. Acad. Sin., n.s., 30: 20, f. 34-36. 1989, as Spermacoce assurgens).