顶花耳草 ding hua er cao

Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, erect, to 100 cm tall; stems terete, flattened or weakly 4-angled, 2- or 4-sulcate, glabrescent or sparsely to densely strigillose to hirtellous throughout or in lines along grooves. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1-4 mm, densely puberulent, strigillose, or glabrescent; blade drying papery or subleathery, a bit fragile, ovate, oblong-ovate, lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate, 2.2-8 × 1-3 cm, adaxially glabrous and shiny, abaxially sparsely to densely puberulent to strigillose, base obtuse to rounded, apex acute to shortly acuminate; secondary veins 2-4 pairs; stipules shortly fused to petiole bases, ovate, triangular, or narrowly triangular, 2-5 mm, glabrous to densely puberulent or strigillose, laciniate or glandular-setose. Inflorescence terminal, subcapitate, hemispherical to subglobose, 1.5-1.8 cm in diam., glabrescent, sessile or subsessile; bracts narrowly lanceolate to narrowly triangular, 1-5 mm; pedicels to 2 mm. Flowers sessile to pedicellate. Calyx glabrescent; hypanthium portion cylindrical, ca. 1 mm; limb deeply lobed; lobes narrowly spatulate-oblong, narrowly triangular, or narrowly elliptic, 3-4 mm, sometimes unequal, usually ciliate. Corolla funnelform, outside glabrous; tube ca. 3.5 mm, barbate in throat; lobes triangular, ca. 2.5 mm. Anthers exserted, ca. 1 mm. Stigmas not seen. Fruit capsular, subglobose to ellipsoid, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., glabrescent, cartilaginous, septicidally dehiscent then quickly loculicidal; seeds several, black, angled. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Aug-Nov.

● Broad-leaved forests on mountaintops; 600-1100 m. Hainan.

Broader morphological variation is included in this species here than in the original species circumscription, based on study of specimens. This is the first description of the corolla; it is based on Liu Qinqu 25932 (MO).