异叶轮草 yi ye lun cao

Asperula maximoviczii Komarov, Trudy Glavn. Bot. Sada 39: 109. 1923, based on A. platygalium Maximowicz var. pratensis Maximowicz, Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 19: 284. 1874.

Herbs, perennial, from thin creeping rhizomes. Stems erect, 0.3-1 m tall, 4-angled, smooth; nodes hispidulous or glabrous. Leaves in whorls of 4-6(-8), subsessile or with petiole up to 6 mm; blade drying papery, lanceolate-oblong, lanceolate-elliptic, or ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (23-)35-40(-53) × (7-)9-10(-18) mm, glabrous or sparsely to moderately hispidulous, at least on principal veins, margins antrorsely ciliolate or -aculeolate, base acute to cuneate, apex tapered and shortly obtuse to acute; veins 3-5, palmate. Inflorescences broadly paniculate, 4-20 × 2-15 cm, lax and many flowered, with cymes in axils of uppermost leaves and terminal; peduncles ± glabrous; bracts linear to narrowly elliptic, 1-5 mm; pedicels 2-4 mm. Ovary obovoid and laterally flattened, ca. 0.8 mm, glabrous, smooth. Corolla white, campanulate; tube ± as long as lobes, 2.5-3.5 mm in diam.; lobes 4, ovate-oblong, obtuse. Mericarps ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous, smooth to granular-papillose. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Oct.

Forests, thickets, or grasslands on mountains, open fields, ditch sides; 1600-3800 m. Anhui, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhejiang [Korea, Russia].

Galium maximoviczii differs from the quite close G. platygalium (see there) by somewhat smaller campanulate flowers and larger leaves in whorls of up to 6(-8). Within G. sect. Platygalium the two species form an isolated group limited to the temperate E Asiatic mainland, characterized by its whorls of leaves and leaflike stipules often with more than 4, up to 6, or rarely even 8 elements, with 3-5 palmate principal veins, and campanulate to funnelform corollas. In Pobedimova et al. (Fl. URSS 23: 273. 1958) the two taxa were placed in the artificial Asperula sect. Galioideae Pobedimova ser. Paniculatae Pobedimova.