大苞鸭跖草 da bao ya zhi cao

Commelina obliqua Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don.

Herbs perennial. Stems often erect, simple or sometimes branched distally, to 1 m, glabrous or sparsely hispidulous. Leaves sessile; leaf sheath densely brown hispid at mouth and in a line on 1 side, sometimes either glabrous with only a few hairs at mouth or hirsute throughout; leaf blade lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 7--20 × 2--7 cm, glabrous on both surfaces or adaxially granular hairy and abaxially hirsute. Involucral bracts often 4--10, forming terminal heads, sessile, funnelform, ca. 2 × 1.5--2 cm, glabrous, proximal margins connate, apex acute or shortly so. Cincinnus 1; peduncle ca. 1.2 cm; flowers 1 to several, nearly included in involucral bracts; pedicels ca. 7 mm, twisted. Sepals 3--6 mm, membranous. Petals blue, 4.5--8 mm. Capsule ovoid-globose, trigonous, ca. 4 mm, 3-valved. Seeds 1 per valve, dark brown, ellipsoid, ca. 3.5 mm, slightly flattened, finely reticulate. Fl. Aug--Oct, fr. Oct--Apr.

Forests, streamsides in ravines; near sea level to 2800 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, SW Guizhou (Ceheng Xian), S Hunan, SW Jiangxi (Longnan Xian), SW Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang (Mêdog Xian), Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].