乐土草 le tu cao

Asperula trichodes J. Gay ex Candolle, Prodr. 4: 582. 1830; Leptunis tenuis Steven.

Herbs, annual, erect, 10-40 cm tall; stems and branches subterete, glabrous. Leaf blade drying stiffly papery, linear, 10-35 × 0.3-1 mm, glabrous to sparsely scaberulous, base acute, margins usually revolute, apex acute; 1 main vein as midrib, secondary veins not visible. Inflorescence 1-15 × 1-20 cm, glabrous; bracts leaflike, 1-3.5 × 0.1-0.2 mm; pedicels lacking or up to 20 mm, thickened toward flowers. Corolla puberulent outside, 1.5-2 mm; lobes elliptic to ovate, 0.5-1 mm, obtuse. Ovary inferior, obovoid, ca. 1 × 1 mm. Mericarps 1-2 mm, with appressed short and curved hairs. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

Open ground and grasslands on mountains, riversides, sunny rocky slopes; 900-1500 m. Xinjiang (Ürümqi) [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Azerbaijan, Iran)].

Leptunis trichodes was first documented from China by Abdusalih et al. (Acta Bot. Boreal.-Occid. Sin. 23(4): 674. 2003).