微柱麻 wei zhu ma

Boehmeria squamigera Weddell; Chamabainia cuspidata var. denticulosa W. T. Wang & C. J. Chen; C. cuspidata var. morii (Hayata) W. T. Wang; C. morii Hayata; C. squamigera Weddell.

Herbs erect, ascending, or procumbent, 12-60 cm tall, producing slender, filiform basal overwintering stolons 10-20 cm. Stems often purplish, simple or branched, stems, branches, and petioles strigose, sometimes with mixed long pillose hairs. Leaves opposite, subequal in size at same node; stipules obliquely ovate, triangular, oblong, or lanceolate, 3-6 mm, membranous, apex mucronate; petiole 2-15 mm; leaf blade ovate, rhombic-ovate, or rarely narrowly ovate, 1-6.5 × 0.5-3 cm, herbaceous, secondary veins 2 or 3 each side of midvein, abaxial surface strigose and sometimes mixed hispid on veins, adaxial surface sparsely appressed hispid, base cuneate to rounded, margin with 3-13(-19) denticles from basal 1/3, apex often cuspidate, sometimes acuminate or acute. Glomerules 3-10 mm in diam. Male flowers: pedicel 2-3 mm; perianth lobes 1.5-2 mm, connate to middle, puberulent apically. Achene and surrounding perianth tube obovoid, 1-1.2 mm, strigillose on shoulder, often truncate at top. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov.

Forest margins, thickets, valleys, along streams, rocks; 1000-2900 m. Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Hubei, Hunan, W Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Vietnam].

The variation in this species is too continuous to justify the maintenance of var. denticulosa and var. morii. The plants are used in Chinese medicine to relieve abdominal pain.