小草海桐 xiao cao hai tong

Shrubs, small, diffuse. Old twigs elongate, glabrous; young shoots numerous, short, scaberulose, with a tuft of woolly trichomes in axils. Leaves spirally arranged, aggregated at apex of branches, sometimes branches undeveloped and becoming extremely short and thus leaves appearing fascicled, sessile or shortly petiolate; leaf blade linear-spatulate, 1-2.5 × 0.2-0.5 cm, succulent, glabrous, only 1 main vein visible on abaxial side, margin entire. Flowers axillary, solitary. Pedicel ca. 1 mm; bracteoles opposite, at apex of pedicels, broadly linear, 3-4 mm, with a tuft of woolly trichomes. Calyx glabrous; tube obovoid-oblong, ca. 2 mm; limb shallowly cupular, apex sinuously 5-lobed. Corolla pale blue, ca. 8 mm, posterior side divided to base, remaining parts divided to middle, outside glabrous, inside of tube densely villous; lobes linear-elliptic, patent into 1 direction, with broad and membranous wings; wing margin basally ± fimbriate. Connective exserted beyond anther cells. Ovary 2-locular. Fl. and fr. Mar-Dec.

Coastal salt marshes, mangroves; near sea level. Dongsha Qundao, SE Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan [Vietnam].