翅谷精草 chi gu jing cao

Eriocaulon alatum Lecomte.

Leaves linear-lanceolate, 2--4(--8) cm, 2--4(--6) mm wide at middle, veins 7--11(--17). Scapes numerous, 16(--30) cm, 4- or 5-ribbed; sheath 2.5--5 cm; receptacle hairs sparse, ca. 1.2 mm; heads brownish, globose to subglobose, 2.5--6 × 4--6 mm; involucral bracts reflexed, straw-colored, obovate to narrowly so, 2.2--2.5 × 1.4--1.6 mm, rigid, membranous, glabrous; floral bracts obovate, occasionally crested along midvein, glabrous or abaxially with some short hairs. Male flowers: sepals spathelike, 1.7--1.9 mm, usually glabrous, apex 3-lobed, lobes truncate or irregularly dentate at apex; petals 3, ovate, anterior one slightly larger than others, usually glabrous, gland absent; anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 3, free, posterior one 0.3--1 mm, deciduous, lateral ones boatlike, 1.8--2 mm, adaxially villous, abaxially broadly winged; petals 3, linear to linear-oblanceolate, anterior one larger than others, membranous, glabrous or sparsely hairy, gland absent; ovary 3-loculed; style 3-cleft. Seeds ovoid, ca. 0.4 mm in diam.; testa broadly and hexagonally reticulate, prickles not visible. Fl. and fr. after Sep.

Meadows, pond margins; near sea level to 1400 m. Hainan [India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].