美丽蛇根草 mei li she gen cao

Herbs or subshrubs, to 100[-150] cm tall; stems drying rugose, grayish yellow, pilosulous becoming glabrescent. Leaves in subequal pairs; petiole 1-3(-5) cm, hirtellous; blade drying thinly papery, ovate, elliptic, or broadly ovate, [6.5-]10-22[-25] × [2-]5-10 cm, glabrous adaxially, densely hispidulous along principal veins abaxially, base cuneate, obtuse, or subcordate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; secondary veins 8-13(-16) pairs; stipules deciduous, 2-lobed nearly to base, 5-7 mm, lobes subulate, glabrescent. Inflorescence cymose to paniculate, many flowered, puberulent; peduncle 2.8-5 cm; axes helicoid; bracts reduced, caducous. Flowers with biology unknown, subsessile. Calyx densely mealy puberulent; hypanthium compressed turbinate, ca. 1.5 mm, 5-ribbed; lobes subtriangular, ca. 0.5 mm. Corolla purplish red, tubular-funnelform, outside puberulent to glabrous, sometimes 5-ridged in bud; tube 8-9 mm, inside glabrous; lobes subovate, ca. 1 mm. Capsules broadly mitriform, ca. 3 × 8 mm, subglabrous or mealy pubescent. Fl. Oct-Dec.

Broad-leaved forests; 1300-2100 m. Xizang (Mêdog), Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Myanmar, Thailand].

Measurements in brackets are taken from the description of this species by Deb and Mondal (Bull. Bot. Surv. India 39(1-4): 103-105. 1997) and may be expected in Chinese plants.