小叶楼梯草 xiao ye lou ti cao

Herbs perennial, monoecious or dioecious, 5-45 cm tall. Stems ascending or erect, branched or simple, densely retrose-strigose. Leaves alternate; nanophylls oblong, 3-9 mm; stipules lanceolate or linear, 4-7 × 1-1.2 mm, glabrous, with cystoliths; petiole 0-1 mm; leaf blade obliquely obovate, obliquely oblanceolate, or oblong, 1.5-8 × 0.5-2.5 cm, herbaceous, major basal lateral veins both arising at base of leaf blade or 1 arising above base, abaxial surface strigillose along veins, adaxial surface sparsely strigillose or glabrescent, cystoliths conspicuous, dense; base with broader half rounded, margin serrate with 7-20 teeth, apex acuminate, acute, or shortly cuspidate. Male inflorescences solitary or in pairs, simple, 3-5 mm in diam., sessile; receptacle obscure; bracts connate, ca. 5 mm; bracteoles narrowly ovate, lanceolate, or linear. Female inflorescences solitary or in pairs, broadly elliptic, 4-6 mm wide, sessile; receptacle small; bracts narrowly lanceolate or subulate. Male flowers 5-merous. Achenes ovoid, ribbed. Fl. Feb-Aug.

Mountain forests and forest margins, rock crevices, streamsides; 500-2800 m. N Guangdong, NW Guangxi, SW Guizhou, S Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sikkim].