长柱柳叶菜 chang zhu liu ye cai

Epilobium forrestii Diels.

Herbs perennial, with short-stalked leafy basal rosettes. Stems 10-45 cm tall, simple or with few branches, strigillose throughout, mixed with glandular hairs on inflorescence or rarely subglabrous, with raised strigillose lines decurrent from margins of petioles. Leaves subsessile or lower ones with petioles 1-5 mm; cauline blade narrowly elliptic to lanceolate-elliptic, 1-3 × 0.4-0.9 cm, both surfaces sparsely strigillose, base subcuneate to rarely rounded, margin remotely denticulate with 3-7 teeth per side, apex obtuse. Inflorescence suberect or nodding; flowers erect. Sepals 5-7.5 mm. Petals pink to rose-purple, 1-1.5 cm. Stigma deeply to shallowly 4-lobed. Capsules 3-5.5 cm, strigillose, sometimes glandular; pedicels 1.5-3.5 cm. Seeds brown, 1.2-1.5 mm, minutely papillose, with short chalazal collar; coma tawny, detaching easily. Fl. Apr-Aug(-Sep), fr. May-Aug(-Oct). 2n = 36*.

● Uncommon in permanently wet places, including sphagnum bogs; 1500-2700(-3300) m. Sichuan, Yunnan.

This highly distinctive, Chinese endemic species is quite rare and possibly endangered due to habitat loss.