竹叶冷水花 zhu ye leng shui hua

Herbs perennial, glabrous, dioecious. Rhizomes fusiform, ca. 3 mm in diam. Stems reddish, blue-green when dry, erect, much branched, 20-30 cm tall, 2-4 mm in diam., slightly succulent, with dense, longitudinally arranged cystoliths when dry; internodes 0.4-1.8 cm. Leaves crowded on upper nodes of stem and branches; stipules almost persistent, triangular, ca. 1 mm, membranous; petiole subequal in length, 5-10 cm; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, oblong-lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or linear, subequal in size, 2-5 × 0.4-1 cm, subpapery, 3-veined, lateral veins many, reticulate, both surfaces lustrous, cystoliths shortly fusiform, dense on both surfaces, base obtuse or subrounded, margin sharply serrulate from mid-base. Male inflorescence not known. Female inflorescences solitary, cymose-racemose, of several glomerules, sometimes capitate, 0.5-2 cm, peduncle 0.3-1.3 cm. Female perianth lobes unequal, largest lobe cymbiform, subapically corniculate. Achene obliquely ovoid, ca. 1 mm, slightly compressed, smooth or sparsely verrucose, enclosed by perianth. (Male flowers unknown.) Fr. Nov.

* Shaded moist steep places in mountains; ca. 1300 m. SW Guizhou.