台湾蝙蝠草 tai wan bian fu cao

Lourea campanulata Bentham in Miquel, Pl. Jungh. 215. 1852; Desmodium formosanum Hayata; Uraria formosana (Hayata) Hayata; U. latisepala Hayata.

Shrubs or subshrubs. Stem erect, simple, densely hirsute or villous. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate; petiole 1.5-3 cm, with dense brown uncinate hairs; terminal leaflet blade oblong or elliptic, 5-8 × 3-5 cm, lateral ones 4-6 × 2-2.5 cm, lateral veins 10-15 on each side of midvein, abaxially densely appressed gray pubescent, adaxially appressed gray pu­bescent, base cuneate or slightly oblique, apex obtuse, mucro­nate. Inflorescences 15-20 cm, with rust-colored uncinate hairs, 1- or 2-flowered at each node of rachis. Pedicel ca. 3 mm, densely hairy as inflorescences. Calyx grayish yellow pubes­cent and ciliate outside; upper lobes connate. Corolla 4-6 mm; standard broadly orbicular or obovate; wings oblong; keel cym­biform. Legume 2-4-jointed; articles ellipsoidal, ca. 3 × 2 mm, slightly reticulate veined, pilose, wholly enclosed by calyx. Fl. and fr. Sep-Dec.

Waste grassy slopes, roadsides; 400-1100 m. Fujian, ?Guang­dong, SW Guangxi, SW Guizhou, S Taiwan, S Yunnan [India, Myan­mar, Thailand, Vietnam].

This species resembles plants in the genus Uraria, but the calyx is accrescent and envelops the folded legume, which is characteristic of Christia. In Advances Legume Syst. (1: 299. 1981), Ohashi et al. con­sidered this as belonging to Uraria.