管花海桐 guan hua hai tong

Shrubs ca. 2 m tall. Young branchlets dark brown after drying, glabrous; old branchlets gray-brown. Leaves clustered at branchlet apex, biennial; petiole 3–6 mm; leaf blade pale yellow-green abaxially, green and shiny adaxially, brown-yellow after drying, oblanceolate, 6–9 × 1.3–2.6 cm, leathery, pubescent abaxially, lateral veins 5–7-paired, slightly convex abaxially, slightly visible adaxially, reticulate veins indistinct on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin flat, slightly sinuolate, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences usually 3–5 clustered at branchlet apex, umbellate, numerous flowered; peduncle 2–3 mm; bracts broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm; bracteoles lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm; pedicels slender, ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Calyx shallowly cupular; sepals connate, ovate-triangular, 2.5–3 mm, glabrous or margin ciliate. Petals connate into a tube proximally, free and spreading in distal 1/3, ca. 1.2 cm. Stamens ca. 8 mm. Pistil longer than stamens; ovary long tubular, pubescent; ovary wall thin; placentas 2, parietal; ovules 4–8; stipe ca. 1.5 mm; style 3–4 mm. Infructescence 7–14-capsuled; pedicels 7–12 mm. Capsule long ellipsoid, 12–15 × 6–7 mm, 2-lobed; pericarp thinly woody, less than 1 mm thick; placentas at base to middle part of valves; stipe ca. 3 mm; persistent style 3–4 mm. Seeds 5–7; funicle very short. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Jun–Oct.

Forests, damp valleys, among stones; 800--1500 m. Chongqing (Nanchuan Xian), E and N Guizhou (Leigong Shan, Zheng’an Xian), W Hunan (Zhijiang Xian).