西南叶下珠 xi nan ye xia zhu

Shrubs up to 3 m tall; branches robust, gray-brown; branchlets slender, 5-10 cm, angular, green, puberulent when young, glabrescent. Stipules linear-lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, persistent; petiole ca. 0.5 mm; leaf blade oblong or lanceolate, usually largest on flowering branches and middle parts of branchlets, ca. 10 × 5 mm, 2-5 × 1-3 mm at upper and lower parts of branchlets, papery to thickly so, base shallowly cordate, margin revolute, apex obtuse and mucronulate; midrib and lateral veins flattened adaxially, raised abaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs. Plants monoecious. Inflorescence a 4-6-flowered axillary fascicle; pedicels ca. 1 mm, with scaly bracteoles at base. Male flowers: sepals 6, oblong, ca. 1 mm, yellowish, entire; disk glands 6, round; stamens 3, nearly as long as sepals; filaments connate; anthers oblong, thecae longitudinally dehiscent. Female flowers: sepals 6, as in male; disk disk-shaped, slightly fleshy, entire; ovary oblate, smooth, 3-celled; styles 3, free, enlarged and shallowly bifid at apex, lobes revolute. Capsules oblate, ca. 2.5 × 3.5 mm, smooth. Seed triangular, 1.5-2 mm, yellowish, smooth. Fl. Jul-Oct, fr. Oct-Dec.

● Open montane forests or scrub; 1500-4000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.

All parts are used as medicine for urolithiasis.