密球苎麻 mi qiu zhu ma

Herbs perennial or subshrubs 0.3-0.5 m tall; stems simple or branched, strigillose along distal 1/2. Leaves opposite, subequal in size; stipules linear, 7-9 mm; petiole dark reddish, 2.5-8 cm, sparsely strigillose; leaf blade suborbicular or orbicular-ovate, 5-9.4 × 5-8 cm, herbaceous, secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs along midvein, abaxial surface purplish and densely appressed strigillose, adaxial surface often sparsely appressed strigose, base cordate or subcordate, margin coarsely dentate, apex cuspidate or caudate and entire. Glomerules unisexual, densely congested along thick, columnar spikelike branches; bisexual and male branches often branched at base, 2.5-5.5 cm; female branches unbranched. Male flowers 4-merous, sessile; perianth lobes elliptic, ca. 1 mm, sparsely puberulent, connate at base; rudimentary ovule obovoid, 0.06 mm. Fruiting perianth rhomboid-obovoid, compressed, 1-1.3 mm, reticulate, strigose on shoulder, base obtuse, apex with very short neck, 2-toothed. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

* Forests, thickets, along streams; 200-700(-1200) m. S Fujian, N Guangdong, N Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Hubei, W Hunan, Jiangxi, S Sichuan, SE Yunnan.