少花马蓝 shao hua ma lan

Acanthopale oligantha (Miquel) C. B. Clarke ex S. Moore; Championella oligantha (Miquel) Bremekamp.

Herbs 40-50 cm tall, isophyllous. Stems 4-angled, sulcate, sparsely and retrorsely white hairy. Petiole 3.5-4 cm, thinly pilose; leaf blade broadly ovate to elliptic, 4-7(-10) × 2-4 cm, both surfaces with prominent white cystoliths, abaxially thinly pilose on veins, adaxially glabrous to thinly pubescent, secondary veins 4-6 on each side of midvein, base broadly cuneate, margin remotely serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences short spikes, elongating to ca. 4 cm in fruit, sometimes reduced to a single flower pair; bracts leaflike; outer bracts ca. 1.5 cm; inner bracts smaller, densely covered with white large-celled trichomes; bracteoles linear-spatulate, ca. 1 cm, densely covered with white large-celled trichomes. Flowers imbricate on rachis. Calyx ca. 8 mm, subequally 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear, subequaling bracteoles, inside apically with trichomes. Corolla bluish purple, 3-3.5 cm, usually bent, outside sparsely pubescent on lobes, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and narrow for ca. 1.5 cm then gradually widened to ca. 1.3 cm at mouth, expanded part campanulate and ca. 2.5 cm; lobes ca. 5 mm, subequal. Stamens 4, included; shorter filament pair ca. 2 mm, glabrous; longer filament pair ca. 5 mm, pilose; anther thecae oblong, ca. 2 × 1 mm; pollen type 10. Ovary pubescent at tip; style ca. 3.2 cm, pilose. Capsule narrowly obovoid, ca. 1 cm, pubescent at tip, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm, pubescent. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Oct-Nov. 2n = 60.

Forests, shaded moist grasslands; 100-800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].