小雪花 xiao xue hua

Dwarf herbs, 2-7 cm tall, unbranched, borne from subglobose tubers; stems erect, puberulent to glabrous. Leaves clustered at stem apex and usually apparently 4-verticillate, anisophyllous, subsessile; blade drying membranous to thinly papery, ovate, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or obovate, 10-70 × 7-25 mm, both surfaces glabrous [or sometimes sparsely villosulous to villous], base obtuse to acute, apex acute to obtuse or shortly acuminate; secondary veins 4-7 pairs; stipules deciduous, elliptic to orbicular, 2-3 mm, obtuse to rounded. Inflorescences cymose to umbelliform, 2- to several flowered, glabrous; peduncles 1-3, 0.7-2 cm; bracts ligulate to ovate, 1-2 mm; pedicels 5-10 mm. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium portion broadly campanulate to obconic, ca. 1 mm; lobes 5, subtriangular, ca. 1 mm. Corolla white, rotate, glabrous; tube ca. 1 mm; lobes 5, oblong-lanceolate to triangular, 3-5 mm. Stamens 5; anthers free, 2-3 mm, poricidal. Capsules obovoid, ca. 2 mm, with persistent calyx limb to 2 mm. Fl. Jun.

Streamsides in forests; ca. 1500 m. S Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam].

This species was reported from Thailand by Sridith (Thai Forest Bull., Bot. 27: 118. 1999) and as having filaments fused at their middles into a tube, but according to the Chinese specimens studied and descriptions of this species in other regions (e.g., Fl. Bhutan 2(2): 756. 1999) the filaments are free. The Thai distribution is provisionally excluded here pending further study of the delimitation of this species.