焕镛螺序草 huan yong luo xu cao

Herbs, annual, to 8 cm tall, mostly unbranched, perhaps ascending; stems densely villous. Petiole 1-3 cm, villous; leaf blade ovate, 3-6.5 × 1.6-3 cm, sparsely villous on both surfaces, base broadly obtuse to truncate and often oblique, apex rounded to obtuse then mucronate; secondary veins 10-12 pairs; stipules persistent, villous, 2-5-lobed, lobes linear, 5-10 mm. Inflorescences cymose, several flowered, villosulous; peduncle 2.5-6 cm; branched portion ca. 1.5 cm; axes mixed dichasial and scorpioid; bracts linear, 1.2-2 mm; pedicels to 5 mm. Flowers distylous, sessile to pedicellate. Calyx puberulent; hypanthium portion obconic to ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm; lobes narrowly triangular, ca. 1 mm. Corolla white, funnelform, puberulent outside; tube ca. 7.5 mm, inside with villous ring at middle and sparsely pubescent above; lobes ca. 1.5 mm. Immature capsules apparently subglobose. Fl. Aug.

● Shady and wet places in forests on slopes of limestone hills; ca. 400 m. Guangxi (Nonggang).

This species was not classified to subgenus in the protologue because the mature fruit were unknown, and predicting the states of unknown characters is problematic in many Rubiaceae (e.g., Razafimandimbison & Taylor, Novon 10: 71-73. 2000).