马蹄金属 ma ti jin shu

Herbs creeping or sprawling. Leaves petiolate; stipules minute; leaf blade reniform to circular, margin entire. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedicellate, hidden among leaves; bracts minute. Sepals joined basally, ± equal, becoming enlarged in fruit. Corolla campanulate, ± equal to calyx, lobed to middle or below. Stamens included; pollen not spiny. Ovary deeply 2-lobed, each lobe with 2 ovules. Styles 2, gynobasic, free, filiform; stigmas capitate. Capsule irregularly 2-valved or indehiscent, apically rounded, truncate, emarginate, or deeply 2-lobed. Seeds 1 or 2 per lobe, subglobose, smooth.

Fourteen species: most in North and South America, with two species in New Zealand, one in Australia, and one widespread; one species in China.

Tharp and Johnston (Brittonia 13: 346-360. 1961) have identified specimens from China that were previously called Dichondra repens as D. micrantha Urban. According to their taxonomic concepts, genuine D. repens J. R. & G. Forster is confined to Australia and New Zealand.

Lower Taxon

• Dichondra micrantha Urban