白花荛花 bai hua rao hua

Shrubs evergreen, 0.5-2.5 m tall. Bark brown, rugose; main stem stout, strong, much branched; branches erect, glossy, slightly yellow, turning purple-red or reddish, extended, slender, glabrous. Leaves opposite; petiole ca. 0.2 cm; leaf blade brown adaxially when dried, light brown to whitish abaxially, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (0.8-)1.2-3.5(-8) × (0.5-)1-2.2(-4) cm, thinly papery, both surfaces glabrous, base broadly cuneate, rounded, or truncate, apex acute; lateral veins 6-8(-11) pairs, slender, more conspicuous abaxially. Inflorescences terminal, erect, a panicle of spikes, rachis 0.2-1.5(-3.5) cm, few to 10(-26)-flowered, sparsely puberulous; peduncle 1-2.5 cm, often branched, glabrous. Pedicel 0.5-1 mm or obscure. Calyx yellow or white; tube 6.5-20 mm, exterior glabrous; lobes 5, broadly elliptic, 1.7-2 mm, margin undulate, apex obtuse. Stamens 10, lower whorl inserted above ca. 1/3 way up calyx tube, upper whorl at throat; anthers linear, ca. 1 mm. Disk scale 1, linear or linear-oblong, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary, membranous, lobed or truncate. Ovary obovoid, 2-3 mm, stipitate, glabrous or apex sparsely puberulous; style short, ca. 0.5 mm; stigma globose, large. Drupe dry, ovoid, ca. 5 mm, usually glabrous, enclosed in persistent calyx. Fl. summer.

Open forests, among shrubs on limestone hills, shaded places, roadsides; ca. 600 m. Anhui, Guangdong, NC Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan, S Korea].

This sp ecies has been misidentified by some authors as Wikstro emia nutans. There seem to be discrepancies between evergreen Chinese plants with white flowers and a single linear hypogynal scale and deciduous Japanese plants with larger leaves (to 8 × 3.5 cm), yellow flowers, and up to 3 dissected scales. We therefore recommend more detailed investigations.