腋球苎麻 ye qiu zhu ma

Boehmeria depauperata Weddell; B. glomerulifera var. leioclada W. T. Wang; B. leiophylla W. T. Wang; B. malabarica Weddell, nom. illeg. superfl.; B. malabarica var. leioclada (W. T. Wang) W. T. Wang; B. oblongifolia W. T. Wang.

Shrubs or small trees 1-5 m tall; branchlets pubescent or glabrous. Dioecious or monoecious. Leaves alternate; stipules lanceolate, 4-8 mm; petiole 2-11(-13) cm, pubescent or glabrous; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, oblong or subelliptic, (5-)9-21 × 2.5-10 cm, papery, slightly rough, secondary veins 3 or 4 pairs along midvein, abaxial surface strigillose or pubescent on veins, rarely glabrous, adaxial surface sparsely appressed strigillose or glabrous, base broadly cuneate, rounded, or obtuse, margin denticulate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate. Glomerules usually unisexual, sometimes bisexual, in the axils of current and fallen leaves along normal leafy stems, 4-10 mm in diam.; male ones on proximal part of flower-bearing branches; female ones on distal part. Male flowers 4-merous, sessile or very shortly pedicellate, ca. 1 mm, pubescent; rudimentary ovule ellipsoid, ca. 0.7 mm. Female flowers broadly obovoid or obovoid, ca. 1 mm, pubescent, with short neck, 2-toothed; stigma ca. 1.2 mm. Fruiting perianth brown, obovoid, ca. 1.2 mm, sessile. Fl. Nov-Jan, fr. Feb-Apr.

Subtropical forests; 100-1400 m. SW Guangxi, SE Xizang, S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

This species is variable in the shape, size, and indumentum of the leaves and in the length of the neck of the female perianth tube. These features show some correlation with geography, with leaves mostly ovate, more pubescent abaxially, and with inconspicuous fruiting perianth necks in the northern and western part of the range, and leaves more elliptic, less pubescent (even glabrous), and with conspicuous fruiting perianth necks in the southern and eastern parts of the range. However, there are frequent intermediates, not only in the middle part of the range, but also within populations, such that it is not possible to maintain any infraspecific taxa.