软弱马先蒿 ruan ruo ma xian hao

Herbs annual, 20--25 cm tall, glabrous. Roots ca. 2 cm. Stems ± ascending, slender, many branched basally and at middle; branches slender, weak. Basal leaves withering early. Stem leaves in whorls of 3 or 4; petiole ca. 5 mm; leaf blade ovate-oblong to ovate, 10--18 X 7--9 mm, pinnatifid; segments 5 or 6 pairs, incised-dentate. Inflorescences spicate, 2--4-flowered, fascicled, lax; bracts leaflike, proximal ones ca. as long as flowers, distal ones longer than calyx and shorter than corolla. Calyx campanulate, only 2.5 mm, glabrous throughout, slightly cleft anteriorly, with sparse reticulate veins; lobes 5, oblong, barely 1 mm, membranous, entire. Corolla 1.4--1.8 cm; tube ± bent at a right angle basally, slightly ascending at junction of tube and galea, 1--1.1 cm, expanded apically; galea ± falcate, 4--5 mm, not projecting in front; lower lip barely 5.5--7 mm, middle lobe obovate, ca. 1/2 as large as lateral lobes. Filaments glabrous.

* W Sichuan.