螺序草 luo xu cao

Herbs, perennial, usually rooting at basal nodes but ascending in upper parts; stems puberulent to glabrescent. Petiole 0.3-1 cm; leaf blade drying papery, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 1-6.5 × 1-3 cm, puberulent to glabrescent on both surfaces, base cuneate to obtuse, apex obtuse to acute; secondary veins 3-7 pairs; stipules deciduous or caducous, deeply 2-lobed, lobes narrowly triangular to linear, 4-5 mm, puberulent to glabrescent. Inflorescences cymose, puberulent to strigillose, unbranched or dichasially branched 1 time; peduncle 1-4.5 cm; axes scorpioid; bracts filiform. Flowers subsessile. Calyx glabrous to puberulent; hypanthium portion oblanceoloid to cylindrical, 1.5-2 mm; limb 0.5-1 mm, deeply lobed; lobes triangular. Corolla white, shortly tubular, outside glabrous; tube 2-2.5 mm; lobes 1-1.5 mm, dorsally keeled. Capsules linear-oblong to oblanceoloid, 5-6 × 1.5-1.7 mm, valves 2, becoming twisted, sometimes later partially splitting.

Moist shady sites, often along streams; near sea level to 1200 m. Perhaps present in China, no confirmed material seen [Indonesia (Java)].

This species is here circumscribed more narrowly and somewhat differently than done by H. S. Lo (in FRPS 71(1): 107-110. 1999); it has not yet been confirmed from China and is included here for comparison, based on the description of Bakhuizen f. (Fl. Java 2: 289. 1965) who studied plants in the type region. Authors outside China have separated the Himalayan plants with 4-valved capsules as Spiradiclis cylindrica (Deb & Rout, Candollea 44: 225-229. 1989; Springate & Wright, Fl. Bhutan 2(2): 772-774. 1999) and are followed here; H. S. Lo et al. (Acta Bot. Austro Sin. 1: 31. 1983) synonymized this name under S. caespitosa f. cylindrica.

H. S. Lo (Acta Bot. Austro Sin. 1: 31-32. 1983) described several forms of Spiradiclis caespitosa. In FRPS (H. S. Lo, loc. cit. 1999: 110), f. subimmersa was distinguished by its narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate leaves 3-7 × 0.7-1.5 cm. The plants included in f. subimmersa were subsequently treated as a species, S. arunachalensis, by Deb and Rout (loc. cit.: 225). These plants correspond to S. cylindrica as circumscribed here, rather than to S. caespitosa under which the varietal name was actually published. Most of the specimens studied and described by Deb and Rout were not seen by Lo, and similarly Lo’s material was not seen by them. Spiradiclis arunachalensis is provisionally treated here pending further study.