匍枝金丝桃 pu zhi jin si tao

Shrublets, prostrate or ascending, to 0.3 m tall, forming clumps or mats to 1 m in diam., sometimes pendent from rocks; stems branching pinnately, rooting. Stems 4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually 4-lined to subterete; internodes 0.5-1.4 cm, shorter than to exceeding leaves. Leaves with petiole 0.5-1.5 mm; blade elliptic or elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate or more rarely obovate, 0.7-1.6(-2) cm × 2-9 mm, increasing in size and relative width up stem, thickly papery, abaxially paler or ± glaucous; laminar glands medium to short streaks and dots; abaxial glands absent; main lateral veins 1-2(-3)-paired, tertiary reticulation dense, often obscure; base cuneate, apex obtuse to rounded. Inflorescence 1-flowered; flowering branches from middle and upper part of current stem; bracts (uppermost leaf pair) leaflike, persistent. Pedicels 4-8 mm. Flowers 2-3 cm in diam., ± deeply cupped; buds ovoid-ellipsoid, apex rounded. Sepals reflexed in bud, spreading in fruit, oblong to obovate or oblanceolate, unequal, 0.6-1.4 × 2.5-6.5 cm; laminar glands distal, streaks and dots, relatively few, margin entire, apex obtuse or rarely apiculate to rounded. Petals deep golden yellow, sometimes tinged red, broadly obovate, 1.1-1.8 cm × 7-12 mm, 1.3-1.9 × as long as sepals; margin entire, eglandular; apiculus rounded, nearly absent. Stamen fascicles each with 20-30 stamens, longest 4.5-6 mm, 0.25-0.35 × as long as petals. Ovary globose, 3-4 × 3-5 mm; styles (2.5-)3-4(-4.5) mm, ca. as long as ovary, free, erect, ± sharply outcurved near apex. Capsule globose to depressed-globose, 6-10 mm and wide, indehiscent, ± baccate, brick-colored when ripe. Seeds dark reddish brown, 0.6-0.7 mm, narrowly carinate; testa linear-foveolate. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Grassy slopes, rocky places, streamsides at forest edges; 2500-3500 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [NE India, N Myanmar, Nepal].