黄花羊蹄甲 huang hua yang ti jia

Shrubs, erect, to 4 m tall. Young branches puberulent. Stip­ules linear, ca. 1 cm; petiole 1.5-3 cm, slender; leaf blade sub­orbicular, 3-7 × 4-8 cm, papery, abaxially tomentose, adaxially glabrous, base cordate, 7-9-veined, apex bifid to ca. 1/2, lobes rounded at apex. Inflorescence a lateral raceme, 1-3-flowered; pedicel short; bracts and bracteoles linear, 4-7 mm. Flower buds fusiform, ca. 2 cm, puberulent. Hypanthium turbinate, ca. 5 mm. Calyx split spathaceously at anthesis. Petals light yel­lowish, subequal, broadly obovate, 4-5.5 × 3-4 cm, subsessile. Fertile stamens 10, unequal; filaments 1-2 cm, puberulent at base. Ovary stalked, tomentose; style slender, glabrous; stigma peltate, small. Legume flat, linear, 7-15 × 1.2-1.5 cm, sutures not ridged; valves leathery, velutinous. Seeds brownish, subor­bicular, compressed, 6-8 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. almost year-round. 2n = 28.

Widely cultivated as ornamental plants in China. Fujian, Guang­dong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [origin in tropical Asia, prob­ably indigenous to India; cultivated elsewhere].