匍地蛇根草 pu di she gen cao

Ophiorrhiza harrisiana Heyne ex G. Don var. rugosa (Wallich) J. D. Hooker; O. prostrata D. Don; O. prostrata var. rugosa (Wallich) Panigrahi & S. K. Kar.

Herbs, sometimes annual, weak to erect, to 60 cm tall; stems pilosulous to tomentulose. Leaves in subequal pairs; petiole 0.5-1.5(-3) cm, puberulent to tomentulose; blade drying thinly papery, ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic, 2-6(-11) × 1-3(-5) cm, adaxially glabrous to sparsely strigillose or hispidulous, abaxially pilosulous or hispidulous along principal veins, base cuneate to obtuse, apex caudate-acuminate, obtuse, acute, or weakly acuminate; secondary veins 5-7(-11) pairs; stipules generally persistent on uppermost nodes, triangular then contracted to linear, 4-10 mm, puberulent to glabrescent. Inflorescence cymose to congested-cymose, several to many flowered, pilosulous to glabrescent; peduncles 1.5-3 cm; axes short to developed, becoming helicoid; bracts few, deciduous, linear, 2-3 mm. Flowers with biology unknown, subsessile. Calyx puberulent; hypanthium ellipsoid, ca. 0.8 mm; lobes 0.2-1.5 mm. Corolla pink to white, tubular-funnelform, outside puberulent to glabrous; tube 3-6 mm, inside with pubescent ring near or above middle; lobes triangular, 1-2 mm, dorsally smooth to ridged. Capsules obconic, 2-2.5 × 4-5 mm, puberulent to glabrescent.

Evergreen forests; 1700-3400 m. Xizang, Yunnan (Gongshan) [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal, Sri Lanka].

The description here is based mostly on the description by Deb and Mondal (Bull. Bot. Surv. India 39(1-4): 107-118. 1997); the elevational range is taken from Fl. Bhutan (2(2): 778. 1999). This species was treated by Deb and Mondal as a widespread, morphologically rather variable species; Fl. Bhutan noted that this species is variable and not well circumscribed.