华南爵床 hua nan jue chuang

Mananthes austrosinensis (H. S. Lo) C. Y. Wu & C. C. Hu.

Herbs 40-70 cm tall. Stems 4-angled, sulcate, glabrous. Petiole 0.5-3 cm, bifariously pubescent or glabrescent; leaf blade broadly ovate to ovate-elliptic, 7-15 × 2.5-7 cm, glabrous, abaxially pale green, adaxially green and with numerous cystoliths especially on veins, secondary veins 5-8 on each side of midvein, base cuneate and decurrent onto petiole, margin crenate or entire, apex shortly acuminate to acute. Spikes mostly terminal or rarely axillary, 5-7 cm; peduncle 1-3 cm, with numerous cystoliths, glabrous; bracts green, usually subtending 1 or 2 flowers, flabellate or broadly obovate, 5-8 × 7-9 mm, margin ciliate, apex acuminate to obtuse and mucronate, with 1-3 teeth; bracteoles subulate, ca. 3 mm, margin ciliate, apex acuminate. Calyx 5-lobed almost to base; lobes lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, margin ciliate, apex acuminate. Corolla yellowish green with purplish red dots on lobes, ca. 1.3 cm, outside pilose, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; lip ca. 1/2 as long as corolla; lower lip 3-lobed, lobes ovate, ca. 2 × 2 mm, and apex rounded; upper lip ovate-triangular, ca. 6 × 3 mm, erect, apex emarginate. Stamens exserted; filaments ca. 4 mm, glabrous; anther thecae ca. 2 mm, unequal, superposed, lower one spurred at base, upper one muticous. Ovary glabrous; style ca. 1 mm, pilose. Capsule clavate, ca. 1.2 cm, pubescent, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 2 mm, rugose. Fl. Jul-Oct.

● Thickets in ravines. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Yunnan.