宽叶紫麻 kuan ye zi ma

Villebrunea tonkinensis Gagnepain, Notul. Syst. (Paris) 4: 131. 1928; Oreocnide villosa Metcalfe.

Shrubs, 1-4 m tall; branchlets purplish brown; branchlets, petioles, and abaxial leaf veins densely villous or pubescent, then glabrescent. Stipules linear, 1-2 cm; petiole 1-7 cm; leaf blade abaxially light green or yellow-green, adaxially dark green, rugose, broadly elliptic, ovate, or obovate, 7-19 × 4-9 cm, papery, 3-veined, basal-lateral pair reaching apex, anastomosing with basal pair of secondary veins, secondary veins 2-4 pairs, anastomosing by margin, base rounded or obtuse, margin entire for proximal 1/3, or coarsely serrulate distally, apex caudate or acuminate. Inflorescences in axils of current and older branches, pedunculate, branched dichotomously 2 or 3 times, 1-1.5 cm; glomerules 3-4 mm in diam. Male flowers: perianth lobes 3, ovate, connate 1/2 of length, ca. 1.2 mm; rudimentary ovary subclavate. Female flowers ca. 1 mm. Achene ovoid, ca. 2 mm, smooth, surrounded by a fleshy discoid cupule at base. Fl. Oct-Dec, fr. Apr-Jul.

Thickets, margins of mixed forests; 100-1400 m. SW Guangxi, SE Yunnan [N Vietnam].

This species has a variable leaf indumentum, and maintaining either infraspecific taxa or Oreocnide villosa does not seem warranted.