刺齿泥花草 ci chi ni hua cao

Gratiola ciliata Colsmann, Prodr. Descr. Gratiol. 14. 1793; Bonnaya brachiataLink & Otto; Gratiola serrata Roxburgh; Ilysanthes serrata (Roxburgh) Urban; Vandellia ciliata (Colsmann) T. Yamazaki.

Annuals, to 20 cm tall. Stems erect or diffuse, much branched; branches decumbent, sometimes rooting from last node. Leaves sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade oblong to lanceolate-oblong, 0.7-4.5 X 0.3-1.2 cm, glabrous, base amplexicaul, margin densely aristate-serrate, apex acute to obtuse. Racemes terminal; bracts lanceolate, ca. 1/2 as long as pedicels. Calyx ca. 5 mm, lobed to base; lobes narrowly lanceolate, with a spinelike tip. Corolla light purple or white, ca. 7 mm; tube to 4.5 mm; lower lip almost as long as upper lip, often unequally 3-lobed, middle lobe larger than other lobes; upper lip ovate; lobe apices rounded. Fertile stamens 2, posterior; reduced stamens 2, anterior, forming prominent plaits on base of lower lip. Style as long as fertile stamens. Capsule cylindric, ca. 3 X as long as persistent calyx, apex mucronate. Seeds irregularly triangular. Fl. and fr. summer-winter.

Moist places, rice fields, grassland, wastelands, trailsides; ca. 1300 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam; N Australia].

Used medicinally.