锐齿楼梯草 rui chi lou ti cao

Herbs perennial, dioecious, 14-70 cm tall. Stems ascending or erect, branched or rarely simple, glabrous, pilose, or densely pubescent. Leaves alternate; nanophylls absent; stipules narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 3-5 × 0.5-1 mm, glabrous, with cystoliths; petiole 0.5-5 mm; leaf blade obliquely elliptic, 5-15 × 2.2-5 cm, herbaceous or membranous, major basal lateral veins both arising at base of leaf blade or 1 arising above base, abaxial surface sparsely puberulent or glabrescent along veins, adaxial surface sparsely strigillose, cystoliths slightly conspicuous, dense; base with broader half broadly cuneate or rounded, margin sharply serrate, apex acuminate or short caudate. Male inflorescences solitary, simple, 6-13 mm in diam.; peduncle ca. 6 mm; receptacle 5-11 mm in diam.; bracts connate, ca. 2.5 mm; bracteoles cymbiform. Female inflorescences solitary or in pairs, 3-12 mm in diam.; peduncle 0.5-2 mm; receptacle 2-10 mm in diam.; bracts ovate; bracteoles spatulate or linear-lanceolate. Male flowers 4-merous. Achenes ovoid or ellipsoid, 6-8-ribbed. Fl. Apr-Oct.

Forests, streamsides; 300-1900 m. Fujian, S Gansu, N Guangdong, N and W Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar].

This species is used medicinally.