秋分草 qiu fen cao

Basionym: Rhynchospermum verticillatum Reinwardt, Syll. Pl. Nov. 2: 8. 1825; Leptocoma racemosa Lessing; R. formosanum Yamamoto; R. verticillatum var. subsessile Oliver ex Miquel; Zollingeria scandens Schultz Bipontinus.

Herbs, perennial, 5-150 cm tall, sometimes caespitose; rhizomes long, slender. Stems erect, simple, usually divaricately branched in distal half, finely striate, strigillose, minutely stipitate glandular. Leaves cauline, gradually reduced upward, abaxially pale green, adaxially green, abaxially sparsely strigillose, more densely so on veins, minutely stipitate glandular in pits, adaxially scabridulous, eglandular, thin, margin sparsely ciliate, midvein prominent abaxially, apex acute to obtuse, mucronate; lowest leaves usually withered by anthesis, short, narrowly winged petiolate; blade obovate or ovate to lanceolate, 1.5-4.5 cm, base cuneate, margin crenate-serrate (teeth mucronulate); lower to upper leaves shortly petiolate (petiole to 0.6 cm); blade lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, sometimes ovate, 3.5-14 × 0.4-5.5 cm, base attenuate, margin crenate-serrate to serrate or entire; synflorescence leaves shortly petiolate, lanceolate, 0.5-3 × 0.1-0.8 cm, base attenuate, margin 1-5-serrate or entire. Capitula 1-5 per branch, in terminal or axillary racemiform synflorescences, sometimes distributed along much of stem; peduncles 1-30 mm, sparsely to moderately strigillose; bracts absent or 1, oblanceolate, entire. Involucres broadly campanulate to hemispheric, 2-7 mm; phyllaries 3-seriate, unequal, green apically, ca. 1 mm wide, apically sometimes strigillose, sometimes minutely stipitate glandular, margin scarious, erose, ciliate, midvein more pronounced distally, ± translucent, apex rounded, erose, ciliate; outer phyllaries broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm; middle phyllaries oblong, 2-3 mm, base thin; inner phyllaries oblong, 4-5 mm. Ray florets 2- or 3-seriate, 10-40, white, tube (ca. 0.3 mm) and abaxial lamina minutely stipitate glandular, lamina ca. 1.2 × 0.3 mm, glabrous; disk florets yellow, ca. 2 mm, glabrous, minutely stipitate glandular, tube base flared, limb campanulate, ca. 1 mm, lobes spreading and reflexed, triangular, ca. 0.5 mm. Achenes purple proximally to mottled purple in proximal half (not purple above), obovoid, ca. 2 mm, glabrous, of ray compressed, distally minutely stipitate glandular, 2-ribbed, long beaked, of disk trigonous, eglandular, 3-ribbed, beakless or shortly beaked. Pappus 3-seriate, easily caducous and often absent (through loss), of mottled reddish brown, barbellulate bristles; outermost bristles 0-3, slender, ca. 0.1 mm; outer bristles absent or 1, slender, ca. 1.7 mm; innermost bristles 4 or 5, ca. 2 mm, slightly flattened distally. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.

Forest margins, shaded forests, disturbed forests, shaded streamsides, damp weedy places, open grassy or brushy slopes, roadsides, thickets; 400-2500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam].