奇瓣马蓝 qi ban ma lan

Pteracanthus cognatus (Benoist) C. Y. Wu & C. C. Hu.

Herbs to 50 cm tall, isophyllous, drying blackish. Stems stout, 4-angled, lenticellate, glabrous. Petiole ca. 1 cm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong to lanceolate, 6-12 × 3-4.5 cm, both surfaces densely covered with small cystoliths, very sparsely pilose with scattered large-celled trichomes, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, base cuneate, margin crenate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, spikes, 3-5 cm; bracts lanceolate, 7-20 × ca. 6 mm, sparsely pilose with large-celled white trichomes, margin ciliate, apex acuminate; bracteoles oblong, ca. 11 × 2 mm, gland-tipped pilose, apex acute. Flowers imbricate on rachis. Calyx 1-1.2 cm, outside gland-tipped pilose, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear, ca. 1 mm wide, apex acute. Corolla violet, 4-5 cm, ventricose, outside glabrous, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and ca. 3 mm wide for ca. 2.5 cm then gradually widened to ca. 1.5 cm at mouth; lobes oblong, ca. 6 × 5 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 4, included; filaments erect, shorter pair ca. 6 mm, longer pair ca. 8 mm; anther thecae oblong, ca. 3 × 1 mm; pollen type 4. Ovary glabrous except pilose at tip; style 3.5-4.2 cm. Capsule ca. 1.8 cm, pilose at tip, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 3 × 2.5 mm, densely appressed pubescent. Fl. Aug-Oct, fr. Nov-Dec.

● Moist places by streams; 1200-1400 m. Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan.