印禅铁苋菜 yin chan tie xian cai

Shrubs, 1-2 m tall. Younger branchlets pubescent; branches elongated, brownish, glabrous. Stipules subulate, 1.5-3 mm; petiole 3-6 cm; leaf blade ovate-oblong, 9-15 × 5-8.5 cm, lightly papyraceous, both surfaces pilose along midvein, base obtuse, margin coarsely serrate, apex acuminate or acute; basal veins 3. Spike 1, rarely 2, axillary, commonly bisexual, slender, 5-14 cm, pilosulose; peduncle 5-8 mm; base with 1(or 2) female flowers, distally with male flowers, sometimes entirely male; female bracts broadly ovate, fruiting accrescent, 6-10 × 5-12 mm, 7-9-denticulate, subglabrous; male bracts narrowly ovate, ca. 1 mm. Male flowers 7-13, fascicled or glomerate; pedicel ca. 1.5 mm; sepals 4, ovate, ca. 1 mm, acute; stamens 8. Female flowers subsessile; sepals 3, narrowly ovate, ca. 1 mm, acute, somewhat ciliate; ovary subglobose, densely setulose; styles 3, ca. 6 mm, pectinate-lacinulate. Capsule 3-locular, ca. 4 mm in diam., scattered very short softly setiform. Seeds ovoid, ca. 3 mm, grayish, smooth. Fl. Apr-Dec, fr. Jun-Dec.

● Limestone hills, forests, thickets; below 100 m. NW Guangdong, SE Guangxi.