喜雨草 xi yu cao

Tubers to 3 cm in diam. Stems 1-3, erect, unbranched, 20-30 cm, slender, purplish villous, leafless toward base, glabrescent. Leaves ca. 5-paired toward apex; petiole 1.5-8 mm; leaf blade ovate to oblong-ovate, 4-12 × 1-4 cm, sparsely fines pilose, short floccose-pilose along veins, base broadly cuneate, decurrent along petiole, margin coarsely crenate-serrate, apex acute to short acuminate. Racemes 4-7 cm, retrorse minutely tomentose; verticillasters subsessile, widely spaced; bracts sessile, lanceolate, 5 mm, base acuminate, margin entire or few dentate, apex acuminate, ciliolate; bracteoles minute. Pedicel 0.9-1.5 cm. Calyx 4-5 mm, glandular, veins finely pilose, pouched to 8 mm in fruit, limb 2-lipped to nearly 1/2 its length; upper lip 2-toothed to 2/3 of length. Corolla purplish, 6-8 mm, margin papillate ciliolate; upper lip 3-4 mm, netted toward base, sparsely pilose abaxially. Nutlets ca. 2 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug.

* Subtropical evergreen forests; ca. 1300 m. Hunan.