无根藤 wu gen teng

Stem green-brown, filiform, slightly woody, rusty pubescent when young but sparsely pubescent or glabrous when mature. Leaves reduced to minute scales. Spike ca. 2.5 cm, densely rusty pubescent; bracts and bracteoles brown, minute, broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm, ciliate. Flowers white, small, less than 2 mm, sessile. Perianth lobes 6, in 2 series, outer 3 small, orbicular, ciliate, inner 3 larger, ovate, all pubescent outside, subglabrous inside. Fertile stamens 9; filaments of 1st whorl subpetaloid, those of 2nd and 3rd whorls filiform, of 3rd whorl each with 2 stalkless glands, others glandless; anthers 2-celled; cells of 1st and 2nd whorls introrse, those of 3rd whorl extrorse. Staminodes 3, stalked. Ovary ovoid, subglabrous; style short, slightly angled; stigma small, capitate. Fruit small, ovoid, included in dilated and fleshy perianth tube after anthesis, free, with persistent lobes on top. Fl. and fr. May-Dec.

Thickets or sparse forests on mountain slopes; near sea level to 1600 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia].

This pantropical species is harmful to its host plants. The whole plant is used by local people as a diuretic and as a paste for paper-making.