田麻 tian ma

Annual herbs, to 1 m tall; stems and branches stellate pilose. Stipules subulate, 2-4 mm, caducous; petiole 0.2-2.3 cm, hairy; leaf blade ovate or narrowly ovate, 2.5-6(-8) × 1-3(-4.5) cm, papery or membranous, both surfaces densely stellate pubescent, basal veins 3(-5), lateral veins 2-3 on each side of midrib, base rounded to shallowly cordate, margin crenate-dentate, apex acuminate. Pedicels slender, 1.5-3 cm. Sepals narrowly lanceolate, 5-8 mm, reflexed. Petals yellow, obovate, (3-)6-10 mm. Stamens (5-)10-15, in 5 groups of (1-)2-3, 1/2 as long as petals, recurved; staminodes 5, spatulate-linear, 7-10 mm, stiffly erect. Ovary densely tomentose or glabrous. Capsule narrowly cylindric, 1.7-3(-4) × 0.2-0.3 cm, very densely to sparsely stellate hairy or glabrous. Seeds ovoid, less than 3 mm, obscurely transversely ridged. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. autumn. 2n = 20.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].

In FRPS (49(1): 81. 1989) this species was treated as Corchoropsis tomentosa Makino, based on Corchorus tomentosus Thunberg, but the latter name was nomenclaturally superfluous when published, and is therefore illegitimate, because in the protologue (Fl. Jap. 228. 1784) Thunberg listed C. hirsutus Linnaeus as a synonym.