白花马蔺 bai hua ma lin

Rhizomes sheathed with reddish purple fibers, creeping, thick. Leaves basal, grayish green, linear, 14--70 cm × 3--7 mm, tough, drying prominently ribbed, midvein absent. Flowering stems 3--30 cm; spathes green, lanceolate, 4.5--10 × 0.8--1.6 cm, 2--4-flowered, apex acuminate. Flowers pale violet, or partly milky white or yellow, 5--7.5 cm in diam.; pedicel 4--7 cm. Perianth tube very short, ca. 3 mm; outer segments oblanceolate, 4.5--6.5 × 0.8--1.2 cm, apex obtuse or mucronate; inner segments erect, narrowly oblanceolate, 4.2--4.5 cm × 5--7 mm. Stamens 2.5--3.2 cm; anthers yellow. Ovary narrowly fusiform, very long, 3--4.5 cm, grooved. Capsule narrowly cylindric, 6.5--7.5 × 1--1.4 cm, 6-ribbed, apex shortly beaked; fruiting pedicels unequal, 4--10 cm. Seeds maroon-brown, pyriform. Fl. Apr--Jun, fr. Jun--Sep.

Hillsides, grasslands, roadsides; 600--3800 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, N India, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia].