海南秋海棠 hai nan qiu hai tang

Herbs, prostrate. Stems 12-30 cm, 3-4 mm in diam., appressed hairy. Leaves cauline; stipules oblong-lanceolate, 7-13 × 2-3 mm, abaxially hairy, margin denticulate, apex acuminate; petiole 2-4 cm, appressed hairy; blade abaxially red on veins, adaxially dark green, elliptic-oblong, slightly asymmetric, 5-10 × 2-4 cm, abaxially sparsely brown hirsute and pale papillose, adaxially glabrous or subglabrous, venation palmate-pinnate, 5(-7)-veined, base slightly oblique, rounded, margin remotely denticulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, subglabrous; staminate inflorescences terminal and axillary, cymose; pistillate inflorescences axillary, always below staminate inflorescences, solitary or binary; bracts narrowly obovate, 3-10 mm, glabrous, margin minutely denticulate, apex obtuse to acute. Staminate flowers: pedicel 1.2-1.7 cm; tepals 4, white, with reddish veins, glabrous, outer 2 elliptic, 10-11 × 8-9 mm, inner 2 narrowly oblong, 7-8 × ca. 2 mm; stamens 25-30; filaments fused below. Pistillate flowers: pedicel ca. 8 mm, bracteole 1, margin denticulate, apex acute; tepals 5, glabrous, unequal, largest white, with reddish veins, broadly elliptic, 9-12 × 7-8 mm, smallest nearly white, narrowly oblong, 9-10 × 3-4 mm; ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; placentae axile, bilamellate; styles 3, 2-4 mm, fused at base; stigmas 2-cleft, spiraled. Capsule pendulous, ovoid-oblong, to 1.4 cm, equally 3-winged; wings triangular, 1.1-1.5 cm. Fl. Apr.

● Forests, on mossy rocks along streams; ca. 1000 m. Hainan (Baoting, Lingshui).