绿春蛇根草 lü chun she gen cao

Herbs or subshrubs, weak to ascending, to 2 m tall; stems densely hispid. Leaves in markedly unequal pairs; petiole 0.3-2 cm, densely hispid or pilose; blade drying papery, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, larger ones 5-15 × 2.5-4.5 cm, smaller ones 2-6(-8) × 1-2 cm, strigose adaxially, densely hirtellous or hirsute along principal veins abaxially, base acute to attenuate, apex acuminate to caudate; secondary veins 7-12 pairs, prominent adaxially; stipules caducous. Inflorescence cymose, many flowered, densely villous; peduncle 1-3 cm; axes several, helicoid; bracts absent or minute. Flowers distylous, subsessile. Calyx glabrous or ferruginous mealy puberulent; hypanthium rhombic-turbinate, ca. 1 mm, 5-ribbed; lobes subtriangular, ca. 0.4 mm. Corolla white, salverform-tubular and slightly contracted in middle, glabrous outside; tube 7-8 mm, barbate in throat; lobes triangular, 1.8-2 mm, dorsally costate to narrowly winged near apex. Capsules drying reddish brown, broadly mitriform, ca. 1.5 × 5 mm, 5-ribbed, subglabrous. Fl. Oct.

● Shady wet places in forests; ca. 2000 m. S Yunnan (Lüchun).

The protologue described the corollas of both floral forms as similar and noted that the anthers and stigmas are reciprocally placed, at or just below the throat or at the bottom of the corolla tube, respectively. The protologue figure was apparently redrawn for FRPS (71(1): 170, t. 43, f. 1-7. 1999) and differs from the first version: in particular, the stems, petioles, and inflorescence are depicted as densely hispid or pilose in the protologue figure but apparently glabrous in the redrawn figure, and the redrawn figure shows the secund-helicoid flower arrangement on the inflorescence axes as significantly more regular than in the protologue figure.