柱果秋海棠 zhu guo qiu hai tang

Herbs. Rhizome elongate. Leaf basal; stipules ovate-triangular, 6-11 mm, glabrous, apex acuminate and with short awns; petiole reddish, 2-13 cm, sparsely hairy when young; blade peltate, broadly ovate or suborbicular, slightly asymmetric, 5-11 × 4.5-8 cm, thickly papery, glabrous or subglabrous, venation palmate, 6-veined, base oblique, rounded, margin remotely serrate, apex shortly caudate. Inflorescences 4-10 cm tall, shorter than petiole, glabrous; with 2-8 flowers; bracts caducous. Staminate flowers: pedicel 0.8-2 cm; tepals 4, white to pinkish, glabrous, outer 2 oblate-orbicular, 4-11 × 4-12 mm, glabrous, inner 2 narrow, oblong or lanceolate, 3-7 × 1.2-3 mm, apex obtuse; stamens 25-50; filaments 0.4-1.1 mm; anthers obovoid to oblong, 0.7-1.5 mm, apex truncate. Pistillate flowers: pedicel 4-8 mm; tepals 3, glabrous, usually persistent at fruiting stage, outer 2 broadly obovate or suborbicular, 4-8 × 4-8 mm, inner 1 oblong-obovate, 1.5-5 × 1-2 mm; ovary oblong, terete, glabrous, 3-loculed; placentae axile, bilamellate; styles 3, fused at base; stigma 2-cleft, U-shaped. Fruit berrylike, clavate, descending or deflexed, 1.5-2.4 cm × 2-4 mm, wingless. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

● Forests, on limestone rocks in shaded moist environments. Guangxi (Longzhou).