伞形花耳草 san xing hua er cao

Oldenlandia umbellata Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 119. 1753; Hedyotis umbellata (Linnaeus) Lamarck (1792), not Walter (1788).

Herbs, annual or perennial, diffusely branched, to 40 cm tall; stems 4-angled perhaps becoming terete, ribbed, scaberulous. Leaves opposite but often crowded and appearing verticillate, sessile; blade drying papery, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 10-20 × 1-3 mm, adaxially punctate and glabrescent, abaxially scaberulous along midrib, base acute, margins flat to revolute, apex acute; secondary veins indistinct; stipules fused to petioles, glabrescent, truncate to rounded, 1-1.5 mm, with 2-5 bristles 1-2 mm. Inflorescence terminal and sometimes in uppermost axils, congested-cymose to congested-umbelliform, several flowered, scaberulous, pedunculate; peduncles 1-2 cm; branched portion ca. 3 cm; bracts stipuliform, ca. 1 mm; pedicels 0.5-1.2 mm. Flowers distylous, shortly pedicellate. Calyx apparently glabrous; hypanthium portion subglobose to ovoid, 0.3-1 mm; limb lobed essentially to base; lobes lanceolate to triangular, 1-2 mm, ciliate. Corolla white, tubular, outside glabrous; tube 1.5-2.2 mm, glabrous inside; lobes lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm, inside sparsely pubescent. Anthers 0.5-1 mm, included or exserted. Stigmas 0.8-1 mm, included or exserted. Fruit capsular, compressed globose to weakly didymous, 2-2.5 × 2-2.5 mm, loculicidally dehiscent across top, glabrous to scaberulous, perhaps papery; seeds several, blackish brown.

Sandy lands at sea beaches; sea level to near sea level [100-900 m in India]. Hainan (Lingshui) [India, Indonesia (Java), N Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam].

There is some disagreement over the identity and correct name of this species; whether Hedyotis brevicalyx actually occurs in China is unknown as yet, and the description here is taken from Dutta and Deb (Taxon. Rev. Hedyotis. 2004, as H. puberula (G. Don) R. Brown ex Arnott). The plant illustrated for this species (as H. umbellata) in FRPS (71(1): 70, t. 13, f. 1-6. 1999) is actually H. pinifolia, and its description there seems to combine some characters of both H. brevicalyx sensu Dutta & Deb and H. pinifolia.