尖萼马蓝 jian e ma lan

Subshrubs 1-2.5 m tall, forming small bushes, isophyllous or slightly anisophyllous. Stems rounded, somewhat sulcate, glabrous, apically densely covered with whitish cystoliths. Petiole 0.5-1.7 cm, glabrous; leaf blade broadly elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 5-14 × 2-7 cm, both surfaces glabrous with prominent cystoliths, secondary veins 6-9 on each side of midvein, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, abbreviate to headlike spikes, simple or 3-furcate branched, often with a few flowers some distant below head; peduncle 2-4 cm, glabrous; bracts ovate, ca. 7 × 3 mm, herbaceous, caducous, thinly pubescent, apex shortly acuminate; bracteoles oblong-obovate, ca. 3 × 1-2 mm, apex acute. Calyx ca. 9 mm, accrescent to ca. 1.1 cm in fruit, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear to narrowly oblong-elliptic, equal, outside pubescent with gland-tipped trichomes, inside glabrous, apex acute. Corolla blue, 3-4 cm, straight or slightly curved, outside gland-tipped pubescent, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and ca. 1 mm wide for ca. 1 cm then gradually widened to ca. 9 mm at mouth; lobes ovate, ca. 5 × 5 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 4; filaments finely pubescent, shorter pair ca. 4 mm, longer pair 7-8 mm, unequal, and slightly exserted; anther thecae spherical, ca. 1.3 mm in diam., incurved; pollen type 3. Ovary gland-tipped pilose at tip; style ca. 2.5 cm, pilose. Capsule oblong, 1.1-1.3 cm, gland-tipped pubescent on apical half especially near tip, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 3 × 3 mm, densely covered with appressed trichomes. Fl. Dec-Feb.

● Forests; 600-1000 m. Xizang (Mêdog).