鹿蹄草叶白珠 lu ti cao ye bai zhu

Shrubs suberect or creeping, 3–15 cm tall. Twigs terete, substriate, glabrous, sometimes puberulous. Leaves near twig apices; petiole 1–3(–5) mm, glabrous or sparsely hispid; leaf blade obovate or elliptic to suborbicular, 1.3–5 × 0.8–2.5 cm, leathery, glabrous or abaxially sparsely hispidulous, secondary veins 3(or 4) pairs, fine veins distinctly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, base cuneate to rounded, margin crenate, apex obtuse-rounded, apiculate. Inflorescences from upper foliate axils, racemose, 1–1.5 cm, 2–5-flowered, glabrous, pubescent, or sparsely hispid; bracts ovate, ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Pedicel 2–5 mm, glabrous, pubescent, or sparsely hispid; bracteoles 2, above middle, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Calyx lobes triangular-ovate, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous. Corolla white, pinkish at mouth, urceolate or globose-urceolate, ca. 5 mm, abaxially glabrous; lobes reflexed, short. Filaments dilated, 1–1.7 mm, papillate; anthers ca. 1.3 mm; thecae 2-awned. Ovary glabrous. Calyx at fruiting dark purple; capsule 4–6 mm in diam. Fl. Jun–Aug, fr. Aug–Sep.

Alpine windswept moorlands, thickets, grasslands; 3600–4000 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

In FRPS (57(3): 51. 1991) this species was treated as Gaultheria pyroloides J. D. Hooker & Thomson ex Miquel (Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavi 1: 30. 1863), which was described from Japan. The name G. miqueliana Takeda is a synonym. Airy Shaw (Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1940: 318. 1941) restricted the name G. pyroloides to the Japanese species described by Miquel. Therefore, the Himalayan species described here must be called G. pyrolifolia.