棒凤仙花 bang feng xian hua

Plants annual, 50-60 cm tall, glabrous. Stem robust, often winged, long naked in lower part, often tortuous, simple or branched in upper part. Leaves often crowded at upper part of stem, alternate; petiole 1-2 cm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, dark green adaxially, obovate or oblanceolate, 8-15(-18) × 3.5-5 cm, midvein prominent abaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, curved, membranous, base cuneate, attenuate into petiole, margin crenate-serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, racemose, many flowered; peduncles shorter than leaves, 8-10 cm. Pedicels 1-2 cm, bracteate at base; bracts caducous, ovate, 3-4 × 2-3 mm, herbaceous, apex acuminate. Flowers pendulous, yellowish, large, 4-5 cm deep. Lateral sepals 4; outer 2: obliquely ovate, 0.8-1.2 × ca. 0.5 cm, apex acute or acuminate; inner 2: longer, linear-lanceolate, falcate-curved, ca. 1.7 cm, apex acuminate. Lower sepal subsaccate, ca. 3 cm deep, abruptly narrowed into an incurved spur ca. 1 cm; mouth oblique, ca. 2 cm wide. Upper petal obovate, ca. 2 cm, apex rounded, retuse, mucronulate, abaxial midvein thickened, carinate at upper part to middle; lateral united petals not clawed, 2.5-2.6 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes orbicular, large; distal lobes incurved, oblong, longer, apex rounded-obtuse; auricle rounded. Filaments linear, swollen apically; anthers ovoid, apex obtuse. Ovary ovoid. Capsule (immature) clavate, ca. 1.5 cm. Fl. Oct-Jan of next year, fr. Jan-Feb.

Understories of sparse and dense forests, moist places in valleys; 1000-1800 m. Guangxi, SE Yunnan [N Vietnam].

The whole plant is used medicinally for treating carbuncles and skin injuries.